The efficiency of smallholder agriculture in South Africa

Jenifer Piesse, Helmke Sartorius Von Bach, Colin Thirtle and Johan Van Zyl
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Jenifer Piesse: Department of Management, Birkbeck College, University of London, Postal: Department of Management, Birkbeck College, University of London
Helmke Sartorius Von Bach: Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Pretoria, Postal: Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Pretoria
Colin Thirtle: Department of Agricultural Economics and Management, University of Reading, Postal: Department of Agricultural Economics and Management, University of Reading
Johan Van Zyl: Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Pretoria and World Bank, Washington, DC, Postal: Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Pretoria and World Bank, Washington, DC

Journal of International Development, 1996, vol. 8, issue 1, 125-144

Abstract: This study applies data envelopment analysis (DEA) to 1990-91 maize production data for small-holders in the Northern Transvaal homelands of KaNgwane, Lebowa and Venda. There are extremely large differences in efficiency, both between farms and between regions. Within regions, the poorest farms are less than 10 per cent efficient and comparing the homelands shows Venda to be far less productive. Decomposing the efficiency estimates shows that farm size and technical efficiency each explain about half of the total differences. Land is the most serious constraint on output, fertilizer the least binding constraint and the FSP strategy of supplying modern seeds is economically efficient.

Date: 1996
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:8:y:1996:i:1:p:125-144

DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-1328(199601)8:1<125::AID-JID299>3.0.CO;2-T

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