Estimating efficiency levels and their determinants among small-scale sugarcane growers in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Mushoni Bulagi

Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development, 2020, vol. 56, issue 2

Abstract: South African small-scale sugarcane growers are faced with high production costs that may lead to agricultural inefficiency because of an inability to adopt newly available production technologies. This study employed the Data Envelope Analysis (DEA) approach and Truncated regression model to analyse data collected from 160 growers. The findings show technical, cost and allocative mean scores of 95.6,% 55.2%, and 57.5% in the Felixton region whereas 95.2%, 69.1% and 72.6% were achieved in the Amatikulu area, respectively. The age, extension support, and off-farm income variables had a negative effect on agricultural efficiency followed by positive effect of experience, education, access to credit and employment that showed positive relationships. The study proposes that the government should work jointly with mill owners to train and develop extension officers. Furthermore, it should subsidise inputs and equipment to address the poor allocation of resources because of financial constraints currently faced by small-scale sugarcane growers.

Keywords: Demand and Price Analysis; Production Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/356092/files/d ... 04-14T122701.608.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:pojard:356092

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.356092

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development from University of Life Sciences, Poznan, Poland
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().