An economic analysis of the factors influencing maize productivity and efficiency in Rwanda: a case study of Gatsibo District

Abstract

Agriculture plays an important role in raising the economy of Rwanda. Maize is one of the dominant crops that has a good productivity in the study area. An efficient use of the existing resources by farm households improves their productivity and thereby increases their output. Most researches on agriculture focused on how to achieve certain level of yield. However, few researches consider rational resource allocation to improve productivity efficiency. The main objective of the study was to conduct an economics analysis of the factors influencing maize productivity and efficiency among farmers in Rwanda. The first specific objective of this study was to determine the production factors influencing maize productivity in study area, the second objective was to find out socio-economic and institutional factors influencing technical, allocative, and economic efficiency among maize farms in study area.This study was based on the cross-sectional data collected in July 2015. A multi-stage sampling procedure was applied to the population of maize farmers from the area under study and 168 respondents were proportionally selected from seven zones of farming. A Stochastic production frontier model was used to estimate technical, allocative and economic efficiency levels, whereas Tobit model was used to identify factors affecting efficiency levels. The result showed that the maximum yield of maize is 4800 kg/ha. The average values for seeds and chemical fertilizer inputs ranges between 10-21.4 and 20-67 kg per hectare, respectively. The maximum organic manure used was of 10000kg/ha. The average value for pesticide used was 1.54 litter /ha. The average figure for labor is 178 person-days per hectare. The study result indicated that the mean technical, allocative, and economic efficiency score for the sampled farms were 51.78%, 63.17%, and 54.17 % respectively. It was found that improved seeds, land size, organic manure, labor and chemical fertilizer positively and significantly influenced maize productivity. Factors such as access to credit; extension services, work experience in maize production; and family income were found to be statistically significant at 1% level on the influence of the technical efficiency in the study area. However, household head age and distance to market showed a negative and significant effect on technical, allocative and economic efficiency of the maize farms. Thus, government agencies especially Rwanda Agriculture Board and local government and researchers should take into consideration the above indicated production, socio-economic and institutional factors to improve productivity of maize in the study area.