Factors influencing technical efficiency among horticultural farmers in Lesotho

Abstract

The research focused on the factors influencing technical efficiency among tomato farmers in Leribe district. The specific objectives were to evaluate technical efficiency of horticulture farmers in Leribe and to identify factors that influence technical efficiency among horticulture farmers in the study area. Stratified sampling technique was used to select 95 tomato farmers. A combination of primary and secondary data was used to collect data for this study, and these were obtained using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the demographics and socio-economics characteristics of the farmers. Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) was used to measure technical efficiency while Principal Component Analysis (PCA) model was used to identify factors influencing technical efficiency. Data was captured and analysed using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 20.0 and National Council of Statistics Software (NCSS) 2024. The SFA results revealed that tomato farmers in Leribe achieved a technical efficiency level of 83.5%, which is above the benchmark of 70%. PCA results showed that factors such as gender with a (β= 0.279, p = 0.0276), education (β = 0.114, p = 0.0451), seed quality (β = 0.364, p = 0.0009), animal power (β = -0.318, p = 0.0048), farmer experience (β= 0.113, p = 0.0283), irrigation (β= -0.141, p = 0.0385) and off-farm income (β = -0.258 and p-value 0.0279) significantly influenced technical efficiency among tomato farmers in the study area. The study concludes that tomato farmers of Leribe are technically efficient as they achieved way above the acceptable minimum TE score 70%. Furthermore, demographic characteristics and technical factors affect the technical efficiency of tomato production in the Leribe district. To boost technical efficiency among tomato farmers, there is need to promote gender equality in agriculture, efforts should be made to improve access to resources for women by implementing policies that ensure that female farmers have access to land, agricultural inputs, credit, and technology. Moreover, promotion of experience-based learning to develop mentorship and training programs to capacitate the less experienced farmers should be considered by the stakeholders. Learning from the more seasoned professionals will help emerging/inexperienced farmers to gain the skills and knowledge needed to adopt efficient production techniques. Therefore, the situation underscores the multifaceted nature of technical efficiency in horticulture and highlights the importance of addressing these specific factors to improve vegetable farming productivity in the Leribe district of Lesotho.