Efficiency and productivity analysis of vegetable farming within root and tuber-based systems in the humid tropics of Cameroon

The study analyzes the technical efficiency of vegetable farmers in root and tuber-based farming systems within selected sites of the humid tropics of Cameroon. Multistage sampling was used to collect primary data from a cross-section of vegetable farmers drawn from eight selected sites in Santa sub division, Northwest region of Cameroon. Stochastic frontier analysis was used to estimate the technical efficiency of vegetable farmer and to examine its determinants. The results showed that farmyard manure was the most productive factor input, followed by farm equipment and labor. The mean technical efficiency level was 67%, revealing production shortfalls and indicating possibilities of significantly increasing production with the current input Jevels. Female, as well as more educated farmers were found to be significantly more efficient than their counterparts. The results also showed that farmers become less technical efficient as farm sizes become larger. Our study findings suggest that smallholder farmers＇ access to manure, farm implements, and increased women participation in vegetable farming, will produce huge payoffs in vegetable production efficiency in Cameroon.

Technical Efficiency in the Chinese Textile Industry

This paper presents a measurement of the technical efficiency of textile industries with 4-digit codes in China by using the cross-section data from 2002 and 2007 and a fully nonparametric stochastic frontier estimation approach. The technical efficiency of these textile industries is compared across six economic ownership types and across seven regions in China. This uncovers the effects of the proprietary characteristics and the location of a firm on its technical efficiency performance. The nonparametric estimation provides some interesting findings. First, textile production in China performs with a decreasing return to scale. The difference between the output elasticity of labor and that of capital decreases from the year 2002 to 2007. Second, the technical efficiency of the 4-digit textile industry in China is significantly contingent on its ownership and location. Privately-run textile enterprises on average perform with the highest level of technical efficiency among the six ownership types while state-owned enterprises perform with the lowest level of technical efficiency, whether or not the location dummies are accounted for. Third, the technical efficiency evaluated by regions follows the order： ＂eastern area 〉 southern area 〉 central area 〉 northern area,＂ which remains unchanged across the two years.