IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF INLAND VALLEY RICE PRODUCTION IN NORTHERN GHANA

Transcription

1 Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton IMPROVING THE EFFICIENCY OF INLAND VALLEY RICE PRODUCTION IN NORTHERN GHANA S.A. Donkoh 1, J.A. Awun 1 and R. Namara 1 Department of Agrcultural and Resources Economcs, Unversty for Development Studes, Tamale, Ghana Internatonal Water Management Insttute (IWMI), West Afrca Offce, Accra Offce, Ghana ABSTRACT In northern Ghana rce cultvaton s beleved to have a great potental n reducng poverty levels. Despte ths, present yelds are generally low due to lack of water control systems, hgh level of rsks caused by uneven ranfall dstrbuton, and neffcent farmng practces. Aganst ths background three nterventons have been ntroduced n the Tamale area of the Northern Regon of Ghana, namely: the Agence Francase de Development /Mnstry of Food and Agrculture Lowland Rce Development Project (AFD/MOFA-LRDP); the Transfer of Effectve Irrgaton and Water Resources Management Project (TEIWRMT); and the Gollnga Irrgaton Scheme of the Ghana Irrgaton Development Authorty (GIDA). The objectve of ths paper s to dentfy the soco-economc factors that nfluence the neffcency of farmers under the three rce cultvaton schemes. The method of analyss nvolves a one-step estmaton of a stochastc fronter model. Though the average effcency s low, t s relatvely hgh for ntensve rce cultvaton wth mproved water harvestng schemes such as bunds and water regulatng structures. Other factors that reduce farmers neffcency are: educaton; extenson vsts; farmers experence and group membershp. However, general naccessblty ncreases farmers neffcency. To help brng the much needed development n northern Ghana t s mportant that rce cultvaton be supported wth more of the followng: water harvestng and regulatng structures; mprovement n the road net-work; as well as educaton and extenson servces, among others. INTRODUCTION The vson for Ghana s agrcultural sector s a modernzed agrculture culmnatng n a structurally transformed economy and evdent n food securty, employment opportuntes and reduced poverty (MOFA, 8). In the Ghana Poverty Reducton Strategy (3-5) (GPRS 1) agrculture was to be made modern to brng about rural development; and n the Growth and Poverty Reducton Strategy (6-9) (GPRS 11), the sector was to be the panacea for economc growth and development. Rce s vtal to the Ghanaan economy; t s a source of employment and cash for numerous Ghanaan farmers. Rce s grown both as a food and a cash crop by 1% of the farmers manly located n the northern savannah, but also n the forest zone of the Brong Ahafo, Ashant and Western regons (MOFA, ). The Northern Regon possesses a great potental for rce cult- 118 Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1

2 Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton vaton, and lowlands represent the largest area but are mostly unused. Offcal sources put the area of lowlands lable to floodng n the regon at 4, hectares. Inland valley producton systems (lowlands and mdlands) account for 75% of domestc rce producton. They have the hghest potental for rce producton due to ther hydrologcal characterstcs such as hgh water retenton capacty. Despte ths hgh potental, present yelds are generally low due to the lack of water control systems, the hgh level of rsks caused by uneven ranfall dstrbuton, and the low level of nput use (LRDP Msson 1 M&E Report, 1). Aganst ths background three nterventons have been ntroduced n the Tamale area of the Northern Regon of Ghana, namely: the Agence Francase de Developpment /Mnstry of Food and Agrculture Lowland Rce Development Project (AFD/MOFA-LRDP); the Transfer of Effectve Irrgaton and Water Resources Management Project (TEIWRMT); and the Gollnga Irrgaton Scheme of the Ghana Irrgaton Development Authorty (GIDA). The AFD/MOFA-LRDP Project was mplemented by a twnnng of French and Ghanaan Consultng Frms, SOFRECO and PAB Development Consultants of France and Ghana respectvely; the latter beng under the overall oversght of the Mnstry of Food and Agrculture (MOFA). TEIWRMT on the other hand s an IWMI/ Japan Cooperatve Program whle the Gollnga Irrgaton Scheme s one of the rrgaton schemes operated by the Ghana Irrgaton Development Authorty (GIDA). The AFD/MOFA-LRDP Project s an ntensve ran-fed rce cultvaton scheme wth mproved water harvestng schemes such as bunds and water regulatng structures. Farmers n the TEIWRMT project area are engaged n ran-fed rce cultvaton but wth lmted or no water harvestng schemes. On the other hand, farmers under the Gollnga Irrgaton Scheme do not only practse ntensve cultvaton, they have the opportunty to cultvate two rce crops n a year, one n the rany season wth supplementary rrgaton f necessary and the other n the dry season purely on rrgaton. These projects cut across four local authorty areas of the regon namely; the Tamale Metropoltan area, the Savelugu/Nanton, Tolon/Kumbumgu and Central Gonja dstrcts. The Lowland Rce Development Project (LRDP) was desgned to focus smultaneously on mprovng producton, processng and marketng of the rce produced by small scales farmers. The Project amed at developng a proftable and sustanable ntensve rce producton system n the Northern Regon, wth the hope of adaptng the process to other regons n the North Savannah zone. The research on transfer of effectve rrgaton and waterresource management technques s a three year (Jan.7- Dec. 9) Program wth the man objectves as follows: to evaluate and select nland valley wetland stes n northern Ghana that are best suted for Paddy rce cultvaton; and determne the most sutable stes to the least sutable stes based on bophyscal, techncal soco-economc, and ecologcal/ envronmental varables. The Gollnga Irrgaton Scheme s located n the Tolon/Kumbungu dstrct of the Northern Regon. Constructed n 1974, The Gollnga Irrgaton Scheme s a gravty rrgaton system wth a potental rrgable area of 1 hectares out of whch 4ha (4%) have been developed and put under cultvaton. 156 farmers (13 males and 4 females) from 5 adjonng communtes are nvolved n rce cultvaton under the scheme. Vegetables such as pepper and okra are also cultvated n a relatvely small scale. The objectve of ths paper s to dentfy the soco economc factors that nfluence the effcency of farmers under the three rrgaton schemes. Ths forms part of the overall objectves of determnng and quantfyng soco-economc, agronomc, water management, market access, and settlement parameters as well as envronmental factors that are requred for assessng the sutablty of nland valleys for rce cultvaton. METHOD OF ANALYSIS Effcency studes have been well expounded n the lterature (Farrell, 1957; Agner et al., 1977; Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1 119

3 Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton Jondrow et al., 198; Battese and Coell, 1993; 1995). Farrell (1957) proposed that effcency of a frm conssts of two components: techncal and allocatve. Techncal effcency reflects the ablty of a frm to obtan maxmal output from a gven set of nputs, and allocatve effcency reflects the ablty of a frm to use the nputs to optmal proportons, gven ther respectve prces and the producton technology. These two measures are then combned to produce a measure of total economc effcency. In llustratng ths, Farrell assumed frms usng two nputs (x 1 and x ) to produce a sngle output (y), and operatng under constant returns to scale. It s also assumed we have knowledge of the unt soquant of fully effcent frms. Ths s represented by the curve IS IS n Fgure 1 below whch s reproduced from Battese (199). X /Y AS D IS B B C IS 1 AS X1 /Y Fg. 1: Techncal, Allocatve and Economc Effcency From Fgure 1 above, a frm operatng at B s techncally effcent because t s operatng on the soquant IS IS. However f a frm s operatng at C t s not effcent because t s far away from B and ndeed the orgn. In ths case the techncal neffcency of the latter may be measured by the dstance BC, whch s the amount by whch the frm s nputs can be proportonally reduced wthout reducng output. Thus, n a rato form the techncal effcency (TE) of ths frm s measured by TE =OB/OC whch s equal to 1-BC/OC. Ths mples that techncal effcency les between zero and one. Thus techncal effcency of one mples the frm s fully effcent (whle zero effcency mples the frm has no techncal effcency). From the dagram the nput prce rato may be represented by the slope of the straght lne AS- AS. Wth ths, the allocatve effcency (AE) of the frm can also be calculated. At pont C the allocatve effcency, AE s defned as the rato of OD/OB (.e. AE =D/OB) snce the dstance DB represents the reducton n (producton) costs f producton were to occur at the allocatvely (and techncally) effcent pont B nstead of the techncally effcent, but allocatvely neffcent pont B. The product of techncal effcency TE and allocatve effcency (AE) s economc effcency (EE) gven as: EE TE AE ( B/C) (D/B (D/C ) (1.1) Lke techncal effcency, allocatve and economc effcency are bounded by zero and one. In terms of stochastc fronter estmaton, Battese and Coell s (1993; 1995) formulatons are most approprate because they make one-step estmaton possble to correct for any nconsstences. Usng a Cobb Douglas producton functon, Battese and Coell s (1995) stochastc fronter model may be specfed as; y f x, u v (1.) Where y s output, x s a vector of nputs, β s a set of parameters to be estmated, u s a onesded error, whch says that each observaton should le on or below the fronter. Ths resdual represent techncal neffcency; v s the usual two-sded error that represents random shfts n the fronter. That s, whle u measures the factors responsble for that frm s neffcency such as msmanagement, v measures the random varaton n output (y ) due to factors such as luck, clmate and natural dsasters. 1 Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1

4 Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton Note that whereas the factors measurng a frm s neffcency are wthn ts control, factors that measure the random varaton n output are outsde the frm s control. V s assumed to be dentcally and ndependently dstrbuted as N(, ζ v) random varables, ndependent of u whch s dstrbuted as a truncated normal (at zero) of the N(μ,σ ) dstrbutons. u s ndependently, but not dentcally dstrbuted; Note that ε =v -u s the composed error term. There are two objectves n stochastc fronter analyss: The frst s the estmaton of an effcency level of each producer and the second s the ncorporaton of exogenous varables nto the fronter to fnd the extent to whch such varables nfluence techncal effcency. In ths case the exogenous varables are beleved to affect output through producer performance. As mpled from Fgure 1, the techncal effcency (TE) of a gven frm (at a gven tme perod) s defned as the rato of ts mean producton (condtonal on ts level of factor nputs and farm effects) to the correspondng mean producton f the frm utlzes ts levels of nputs most effcently. Thus, TE E Y U, X E Y U, X * * exp U (1.3) where the numerator s the output of the th frm and the denomnator s the potental output or the average output of all the effcent frms n the same ndustry as the th frm. Y exp * Y (1.4) And TE wll take a value between zero and one. Thus Equaton 1. takes the form ln( y ) f ( x ; ) u w ' Where; e v u (1.5a) (1.5b) w s a vector of ndependent soco economc varables δ s a vector of parameters to be estmated and e s a two sded error term wth N(,σ ). The other varables are as defned above. Followng from equatons 1.5a and 1.5b the emprcal model that specfes the techncal effcency of rce farmers s gven as: ln( y ) 1 ln( land) ln( mandays) 3( labourcost) 4 ln( rentcaptal ) ( cropexp) v u 8 5 ( Age) 3( Educ) 4( HHsze) ( Group) 6( Experence ) 7( Extenson ) ( Tranng ) 9( Dfarm) ( Dtown) ( Accessblty) (1.6a) (1.6b) In ths study we lmt ourselves to the estmaton of techncal effcency because we do not have adequate data on nput and output prces whch are necessary for the estmaton of allocatve effcency. Besdes, the study s cross sectonal and t s antcpated that prces do not vary sgnfcantly among the households who are all wthn the same regon. Equatons 1.6a and 1.6b are estmated by maxmum lkelhood, usng the computer program, FRONTIER verson 4.1 (Coell, 1996). Battese and Coell s (1993; 1995) one-step/smultaneous estmaton procedure s used. The maxmum lkelhood estmaton yelds consstent estmators for β, δ, γ, and ζ e where / s and The followng hypotheses are to be tested: Ho s : Ho: Ho: The parameters are as defned earler. v 1 (1.7a) (1.7b) (1.7c) Equaton 1.7a s the null hypothess that returns to scale s constant. Equaton 1.7b tests the hypothess that the techncal neffcency effects u are not present. The techncal neffcency effect model can only be estmated f the Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1 11

5 Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton neffcency effects are present. If the one-sded error term n the producton functon s not present then the model s an ordnary producton functon whch can be estmated by OLS (.e. the model s equvalent to the tradtonal average response model). However f u s present t means that we were rght n usng the stochastc fronter approach. Note that the neffcency term u could be present but may not be nfluenced by the ndependent varables n the neffcency model (1.6b), hence the last hypothess (1.7c) to fnd out whether the ndependent varables do determne techncal neffcency. The generalsed lkelhood rato test statstc s used to test the above hypotheses as {ln[ L( H O )/ L( H1)]} (1.8) {ln[ L( H )] ln[ L( H )]} where L(H ) and L(H 1 ) are the values of the lkelhood functon under the null and alternatve hypothess H and H respectvely: If the gven null hypothess s true then λ has approxmately a ch-square (χ ) (or a mxed ch-square dstrbuton). On the other hand, f the null hypothess nvolves γ =, then the asymptotc dstrbuton nvolves a mxed Ch-square dstrbuton (Coell, 1995). Data As ndcated earler, the samplng frame of the study s the communtes covered by the three project areas (AFD/MOFA-LRDP, TEIWRMT and Gollnga Irrgaton Scheme). The communtes are n four dstrcts, namely; the Tamale Metropoltan area, the Savelugu/Nanton, Tolon/ Kumbumgu and Central Gonja dstrcts; all n the Northern Regon of Ghana. Stratfed and random samplng technques were used to select the households for the study. That s 1 households were selected at random from communtes n each of the three projects totallng 3. However, the total number of households for whom we had adequate data for all the varables was 1 whch stll cuts across all the three projects and four dstrcts. The farms were 1 however, ran-fed and exclude dry season farmng. Defnton of varables In ths study land s the total sze n acres of plot that the household cultvated durng the 7/8 farmng season. Ths may be owned by the household or rented. Labour s n the form of famly labour, exchange labour or hred labour. It nvolves all the human efforts that went nto the farmng operaton, namely: land preparaton (ncludng bund makng and mantenance); seed plantng; weed and pest control (ncludng brd scarng); sol fertlty management; and harvestng, collecton, transportng and threshng. In ths study labour has been categorzed under two, namely, man days and cost of hred labour. Captal s made up of the hrng of tractor (for ploughng and harrowng) and knapsack sprayers for sprayng of herbcdes and nsectcdes, among others. Input expendture ncludes costs of herbcdes such as roundup and norganc fertlzers such as urea, ammona, NPK as well as NPK--. The rest of the varables are defned n Table 1 below. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION As mentoned earler, the objectve of ths study s to estmate and fnd out the determnants of the effcency level of the farmng households n our sample. Tables and 3 contan the results of the maxmum lkelhood estmaton of the stochastc fronter model (Equatons 1.6a and 1.6b). The results n Table 3 are frst dscussed. The frst test of hypothess s constant returns to scale. That s, the sum of the coeffcents of land, man-days, hred labour cost, rental captal and crop expendture (β 1, β, β 3, β 4 and β 5 ) s equal to one (see Table 3). The second s that there are no neffcency effects n our model. That s to say that the neffcency term u s absent and that the model s an ordnary average response model wth ν as the only error term. The last test says that the varables n the neffcency effects model (socoeconomc ndcators) do not explan the neff- 1 Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1

6 Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton cency term u. All the three null hypotheses are rejected (see Table 3), mplyng (1) nonconstant returns to scale, () the presence of the neffcency term u and (3) the explanatory varables determne u respectvely. It s observed n Table 3 that the sum of β 1, β, β 3, β 4 and β 5 s equal to 1.4. The rejecton of the frst null hypothess confrms that ths value s sgnfcantly greater than one, whch further means that returns to scale are ncreasng. The second null hypothess says that there are no techncal neffcency effects n our model. The rejecton of the hypothess means that there are techncal neffcency effects n nland valley rce producton n the study area. What ths further means s that the average response model s not an adequate representaton of the analyss and that we were rght n estmatng a stochastc fronter model. In table the coeffcent and the standard error of γ s.99 and, respectvely. Ths confrms the fact that the true γ-value s greater than zero (as ndcated n the test). However, snce the coeffcent s almost equal to one t means that v component of (ε = v u ) s almost zero mplyng that there are no random errors such as weather falure or other natural dsasters. As Coell et al. (1998) argue, ths s surprsng consderng the fact that agrcultural producton s charactersed by a lot of uncertantes. However, n our study area t could be argued that the nterventon of the projects has gone a long way to cushon farmers aganst some of these rsks. In general the smallness of v mples that the stochastc fronter that we estmated s not dfferent from a determnstc fronter model n whch there are no random errors (v ). The neffcency term u could be present but may not be nfluenced by the soco-economc varables. The rejecton of the thrd null hypothess that the soco-economc varables do not explan u underscores the advantage of the stochastc fronter analyss; n that we are able to explan the varaton of the neffcency term u among the farmng households. Table 1: Summary Defnton of Varables Varable Descrpton Total output Total Value n GH of household produce Land Natural logarthm of farm sze/land area Man days Natural logarthm of household labour days Labour cost Natural logarthm of cost of hred labour n GH Rent captal Natural logarthm of cost of captal rental n GH Crop exp. Natural logarthm of other crop expendture n GH Bunds Dummy;1 f household has bunds on ther farms; f otherwse Age of household head No of years Educaton of household head Number of years of schoolng Household sze No of members n the household Group membershp Dummy;1 f household belongs to a farmng group, f otherwse Experence Extenson vsts For how long household had been n rce cultvaton No. of tmes household had contact wth extenson personnel (ether ndvdually or n group) durng 7/8 farmng season Tranng Dummy; 1 f household got tranng n rce cultvaton n the year 7/8; otherwse Dstance to farm Dstance to town Accessblty Dstance n mles from house to farm Dstance n mles from house to town Dummy; 1 f house/settlement s accessble by vehcle; otherwse. Note that some of the farmers had ther farms at ther settlements. Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1 13

7 Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton Table : Maxmum Lkelhood Estmates for Parameters of the Stochastc Fronter and Ineffcency Model Varable Parameter Coeffcent Standard error T-Rato Stochastc fronter Constant β Land β *** Man days β..9.6 Labour cost β ** Rent captal β Other crop exp. β ** Ineffcency model Constant γ Bunds γ *** Age of HH head γ *** Educ. of HHhead γ *** Household sze γ ** Group membershp γ *** Experence γ ** Extenson vst γ *** Tranng γ ** Dstance to farm γ * Dstance to town γ *** Accessblty γ ** Sgma squared *** gamma γ *** Log-lkelhood functon Mean effcency ***, sgnfcant at 1% ** sgnfcant at 5% * sgnfcant at 1% Dependent varables of the stochastc fronter model and the neffcency model are log of total value of crop output and effcency levels respectvely. Table 3: Tests of Hypothess for Returns to Scale and Coeffcents of the Explanatory Varables for the Ineffcency Models Null Hypothess Log-lkelhood functon (H ) Test statstc λ Crtcal value Decson Test1 HO: β 1 + β + β 3 + β 4 + β 5 = (4) Reject H Test H : γ=δ =... = δ 11 = (11) Reject H Test 3 H : γ=δ =... = δ 11 = (11) Reject H Crtcal values are obtaned from Table 1 of Kodde and Palm (1986, p.146). Fgures n brackets are the number of restrctons. Hypotheses 1 & are tested at 1% whle hypothess 3 s tested at 5%. 14 Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1

8 Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton Average Effcency and the Determnants of Output From Table the mean effcency s.4. Earler, we ndcated that our model s a techncal effcency model because t does not nclude nput and output prces. However, accordng to Battese and Coell (1996) f the dependent varable of the model s value of total output rather than the physcal quanttes of output, the effcency levels obtaned are economc and not techncal effcences and the u s are neffcency effects rather than techncal effcency effects (Battese and Coell, 1996). The mean effcency for ths study s low though comparable to some other studes n developng countres (Donkoh, 6; Bravo et al., 1993). From the Appendx, we notce that the scores range from to 9, most of them havng less than 5% mark. In Sedu s (8) study the techncal effcency for rrgators and non-rrgators were.51 and.53 respectvely. However, Ogunynka and Ajbefun (4) found the average effcency level to be.61 The frst part of the stochastc fronter model shows the extent to whch the conventonal nputs (land, man-days, hred labour cost, rented captal and crop expendture) drectly shft or contrast the fronter, whle the second part measures the neffcency effects. It s observed that whereas land, hred labour and crop expendture are sgnfcant and postve, (mplyng they shft the fronter) labour n mandays and rented captal are postve but not sgnfcant. The sum of the coeffcents of all the varables (land, man-days, hred labour, rented captal and crop expendtures) s 1.4 confrmng the earler rejecton of the null hypothess that there are constant returns to scale. Snce the fgure s sgnfcantly greater than 1 we can say that returns to scale are ncreasng. Also, snce the values of the nputs are n logs, the coeffcents are elastctes: The Determnants of effcency It must be mentoned that n the neffcency model, we are concerned about the effects of the varables n reducng neffcency; therefore, the sgns are nterpreted n the opposte way (compared to how the conventonal nputs determne output n the frst part of the model). Thus, f the coeffcent of a varable has a negatve effect on neffcency t mples that that varable has a postve effect on effcency. All the neffcency effects varables are sgnfcant, most of them mantanng ther expected sgn. The effect on output of bund constructon and mantenance s one of the mportant fndngs of ths study. The study area beng characterzed by torrental ranfall, and wth lmted use of fertlzers, bund constructon s very mportant n checkng eroson and thus conservng the lmted nutrents and mosture on the farms. More households n AFD/LRDP and GOIRRSCM areas had bunds than households n TEIWRMT area. The negatve sgn of the coeffcent mples that the constructon of bunds reduces neffcency (or ncreases effcency). Other varables that reduce households neffcency are: educatonal level of the household head; group membershp; experence; extenson vsts; and accessblty to the farms. These fndngs are plausble consderng the fact that an educated household head would be better nformed about the need for the adopton of mproved varetes and practces than the llterate counterpart. Duncan (1997) asserts that educaton s essental for the progressve development of agrculture snce access to relevant sources of nformaton can ncrease one s chances of obtanng credt and adoptng modern technology leadng to ncreased output. Sedu (8) also found farmers educaton to be postvely related to effcency and stresses that educaton enables the farmer to understand the socal and economc condtons governng hs/her farmng actvtes and thereby act approprately to rase output. And n Bhasn s () study educaton postvely nfluenced the effcency of tomato farmers but not onons and pepper farmers n Upper East regon. Group membershp s another mportant factor that ncreases the effcency of farmers, n the sense that t s a vable source of labour. Ths s aganst the backdrop of hgh cost of labour. In some communtes nnoboa has been formed Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1 15

9 Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton whereby a group of farmers can help themselves on ther farms on a recprocal bass. One other mportance of group membershp s the fact that farmers are able to access credt facltes or other forms of assstance, whch they would otherwse not be able to. There s a sayng that Practce makes a man perfect. Wth several years of farmng, the household s able to gather experence to guard aganst the present and the future. Ths translates nto relatve ncrease n yelds or post-harvest handlng. The negatve sgn of the coeffcent of number of years of farmng therefore does not come as a surprse. Furthermore, the greater the number of extenson vsts to the farmer, the greater the effcency, other thngs beng equal. Ths s because contact wth extenson staff exposes the household to modern agrcultural nputs and practces. Also, frequent vsts or nteracton wth the extenson agents mean that there s more supervson and sharng of knowledge that goes a long way to keep the farmer on track. Our fndng s consstent wth that of Sedu (8) and Bhasn (). Lastly, the more accessble the household s the greater the opportunty to be vsted by help-agents such as extenson staff and market women who would buy the household s produce from the house wthout the household havng to transport t to the market. Qute surprsngly, from the results, the number of tranng ncreases neffcency (or reduce effcency). In some places the reason could be that the tranng s not benefcal but rather a waste of tme to the farmer. Other varables that ncrease neffcency are age of the household head, household sze and dstance from the house to the farm as well as to town. The postve sgn of age mples that households headed by the relatvely young are more effcent. Agan, ths s tenable because n a stuaton where the household head s very old and now a dependant, he may not exert much nfluence or nspre the other members of the household to work hard on the farms. Earler, we noted that experence leads to effcency. There appears to be a contradcton here but t s not, because old age does not necessarly mean long years of experence. We could have aged people who may have retred from formal employments and taken to farmng. Such farmers may not be as effcent as younger ones who have been n farmng for a long tme. Young, energetc and hard-workng heads are not only nsprng but a good example to emulate. In Donkoh (6) household sze was a sgnfcant negatve determnant of neffcency (mplyng t has postve effect on effcency). Also, Sedu (8) found that larger famly sze enhances techncal effcency on non-rrgated lands. He argues that larger famly sze allows for greater dvson of labour and specalzaton whch leads to ncreased output. The varable however, was not sgnfcant n determnng the effcency of rrgatng farmers. The postve sgn n ths study means that t mpacts negatvely on effcency. The postve sgn of the coeffcents of the dstance varables confrm the a pror expectaton that when household members have to walk several klometres to the farm they get tred even before they start work, hence reducng ther effcency. Smlarly, a long dstance from the house to town would mean that the cost n terms of walkng or transportaton would be hgh. Ths further means that the household may not be able to patronse the market wth ther produce n a manner that would brng effcency. Effcency Scores across Rce Schemes Demographc Groups Fgures to 1 further explan the estmaton results n Table. In Fgure we notce that households wth the Gollnga Irrgaton Scheme (GOIRRSCM) regster the hghest average effcency score (.53) 1 followed by those wth the Agence Francase de Development /Mnstry of Food and Agrculture Lowland Rce Development Project (AFD/LRDP) (.46) and then the 1 It must be mentoned that n preparng the data for estmaton all households wth zero output were excluded. Most of these are wth Gollnga Irrgaton Scheme who ndcated that the rans faled them n 7/8. Hence they reled on dry season farmng. Ths s analysed n a dfferent paper. 16 Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1

10 Effcency Score Effcency Score Effcency Score Effcency Score Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton AFD/LRDP TEIWRMT GOIRRSCW Project Fg. : Mean Dstrbuton of effcency scores by Project T/METRO T/KUNB S/NANT C/GONJA Dstrct Fg. 3: Mean Dstrbuton of effcency scores by Dstrct No Bunds Adopton of Bunds Bunds Fg. 4: Mean Dstrbuton of effcency scores by Adopton of bunds Non-accessble Accessblty Status Accessble Fg. 5: Mean Dstrbuton of effcency scores by Accessblty Status Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1 17

11 Mean Dstance n Km Mean Dstance n Km Mean Dstance n Km Effcency Score Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton Group Group Status No Group Fg. 6: Mean Dstrbuton of effcency scores by Group status AFD/LRDP TEIWRMT GOIRRSCW Project Fg. 7: Mean Dstance to farm by Project AFD/LRDP TEIWRMT GOIRRSCW Project Fg. 8: Mean Dstance to town by Project T/METRO T/KUNB S/NANT C/GONJA Dstrct Fg. 9: Mean Dstance to farm by Dstrct 18 Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1

12 Mean Dstance n Km Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton T/METRO T/KUNB S/NANT C/CONJA Dstrct Fg. 1: Mean Dstance to town by Dstrct Transfer of Effectve Irrgaton and Water Resources Management Project (TEIWRMT) (.38) n that order. It must be recalled that households n AFD/LRDP and GOIRRSCM areas do ntensve rce cultvaton wth mproved water harvestng schemes such as bunds and water regulatng structures. It s not surprsng therefore that they have hgher effcency than the households n the TEIWRMT area. The advantage that households wth GOIRRSCM have over those wth AFD/LRDP s that the former have the opportunty to rrgate ther farms n the event of early stoppage of the rans, and even f they do not rrgate (as t happened n the 7/8), the farms stand to beneft from the capllarty of the water body upstream (.e. beng close to the stream, water may seep nto these farms nearby to add to the mosture contents of the sols). Ths could explan ts relatve hgh average effcency score. One other nterestng fndng n ths study s the effect of openness of a communty on household s effcency. Recall that n the estmaton results accessblty to communty ncreases effcency. Ths s depcted n Fgure 5. Note also that n Fgure 8 GOIRRSCM has the shortest mean dstance n mles (4.5) from the communty to town followed by AFD/LRDP (4.75) and TEIWRMT (5.4) n that order. It appears that as far as the projects are concerned, the closer a household s to a nearby town the greater the effcency. Openness of a communty means that farmers can easly dspose of ther produce. Across Dstrcts the Tolon/Kumbungu (T/ KUMBU) tops (.5) followed by Savalugu/ Nanton (S/NANT) (.44) and the Tamale Metropoltan (T/METRO) (.4). Central Gonja (C/GONJ) records the lowest effcency score (.39). From Fgure 1 however, we cannot establsh a consstent negatve relatonshp between effcency and dstance to town, though T/KUMBU records the shortest dstance and the hghest effcency score. The postve and sgnfcant effects of bunds and group formaton are confrmed by Fgures 4 and 6 respectvely: Whle households wth bunds on ther farms record average effcency score of.51, households wthout bunds record.36. Smlarly, the effcency scores for households that are nto groups and those that are not are.47 and.41 respectvely. In terms of dstance to the farm, households wth GOIRRSCM have the shortest mean dstance (1.63) followed by those wth TEIWRMT (.3) and AFD-LRDP (.45). Across dstrcts the order s T/KUMBU (1.64), T/METRO (.3), C/GONJ (3.18) and S/NANT (4.15). CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDA- TIONS The followng conclusons can be made from the fndngs: 1. The average effcency of rce farmers n the four dstrcts n the Tamale area s low (.4) but comparable to other studes.. Effcency s hgh for ntensve rce cultvaton wth mproved water harvestng schemes such as bunds and water regulatng structures as opposed to those wthout. 3. Effcency s also hgher for households who are accessble by vehcles. Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1 19

13 Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton 4. Other factors that ncrease farmers effcency are: educaton; extenson vsts; farmers experence and group membershp. It s n the lght of these that the followng recommendatons are made: 1. If rce cultvaton n the north s to develop to reduce poverty, t would stll need support n terms of water harvestng and regulatng structures. It wll also be helpful that projects come wth the mprovement of the road net-work.. The educaton sector must be gven all the necessary attenton to develop the human resource of the naton. 3. It s also mportant that the amount and qualty of extenson servces are mproved to ensure the adopton of mproved technologes and farmng practces. More extenson staff need to be traned and motvated. One of such technologes s the constructon and mantenance of bunds. Households whose farms requre these should be gven the necessary educaton and assstance. Also tranng programmes should be well organzed to have ts postve mpact. 4. Consderng the relatvely hgh effcency of households headed by younger adults, the Youth n Agrculture Programme (YAP) should be revved and carred to the letter. REFERENCES AFD/MOFA-LRDP (1) Montorng and Evaluaton Report (Msson 1) Agner, D.J., Lovell, C.A.K. and Schmdt, P. (1977). Formulaton and estmaton of stochastc fronter producton functon models. Journal of Econometrcs 6: Battese, G.E. (199). Fronter producton functons and techncal effcency: A survey of emprcal applcatons n agrcultural economcs. Agrcultural Economcs, 7: Battese, G.E. and Coell, T.J. (1993). A stochastc fronter producton functon ncorporatng a model of techncal neffcency effects. Workng Papers n Econometrcs and Appled Statstcs, 69, Department of Econometrcs, Unversty of New England, Armdale. Battese, G.E and Coell, T.J. (1995). A model for techncal neffcency effects n a stochastc fronter producton functon for panel data. Emprcal Economcs : Battese, G.E., Malk, S.J. and. Gll, M.A (1996). An nvestgaton of techncal neffcences of producton of wheat farmers n four dstrcts of Pakstan. Journal of Agrcultural Economcs, 47: Bhasn, V.K (). Agrcultural productvty, effcency and sol fertlty management practces of vegetable growers n the Upper East Regon of Ghana. Report submtted to SADAOC Foundaton. Bravo-Ureta B.E. and Pnhero, A.E. (1993). Techncal, economc and allocatve effcency n peasant farmng: evdence from The Domncan Republc. The Development Economes, 35(1): Coell, T.J. (1995). Estmators and hypothess tests for a stochastc fronter functons: A monte carlo analyss. Journal of Productvty Analyss, 6: Coell,T.J. (1996). A gude to Fronter Verson 4.1: A computer program for fronter producton functon estmaton. [onlne] Avalable from: econometrcs/cepa.htm [Accessed 11 December 4] Coell, T.J., Prasada Rao, D S. and Battese, G.E (1998). An Introducton to Effcency and Productvty Analyss. London: Kluver Academc Publshers. Coell, T. J. and Battese, G. (1996). Identfcaton of factors whch nfluence the techn- 13 Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1

14 Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton cal neffcency of Indan farmers. Australan Journal of Agrcultural Economcs, 4(): Donkoh, S.A (6). Technology adopton and Effcency n Ghanaan Agrculture. Ph.D Thess submtted to the of Unversty of Readng, U.K (Unpublshed) Duncan, B.A (1997). Women n Agrculture n Ghana. Accra, Ghana: Fredrch Ebert Foundaton Farrell, M. J. (1957). The measurement of productve effcency. Journal of Royal Statstcal Socety, A, 1(3): ISSER (7). The State of the Ghanaan Economy. Accra-Ghana: Jondrow, J., Lovell, C.A.K., Materov, I.S and Schmdt P. (198). On the estmaton of techncal neffcency n the stochastc fronter producton functon model. Journal of Econometrcs, 19(/3): Kodde, D., and Palm, F. (1986). Wald crtera for jontly testng equalty and nequalty restrctons. Econometrca, 54(5): Kumbhakar, S.C. and Lovell, C.A K. (). Stochastc Fronter Analyss. Cambrdge: Cambrdge Unversty Press. MOFA (). Food and Agrculture Sector Development Polcy (FASDEP) Accra: Ghana. MOFA (8) Agrcultural sector plan (zero Draft)Accra: Ghana NDPC (5). Ghana Poverty Reducton Strategy (3-5) (GPRS 1) &Growth and Poverty Reducton Strategy (6-9) (GPRS 11) Ogunynka, E.O. and Ajbefun, I. (4). Determnants of techncal neffcency on farm producton: tobt analyss approach to the Nde farmers n Ondo State, Ngera. Internatonal Journal of Agrculture and Bology, Sedu A. (8). Techncal effcency of rce farmers n Northern Ghana. AREC Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1 131

15 Improvng the effcency of nland valley rce producton Appendx-Effcency scores Household Effcency Household Effcency Household Effcency Household Effcency Journal of Ghana Scence Assocaton, Vol. 1 No.. Dec., 1