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Analysis of resource use efficiency for white cumin production among smallholder farmers empirical evidence from Northwestern Ethiopia: a stochastic frontier approach

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Abstract

Cumin is a flowering plant and the second Ethiopian export spice crop next to ginger. The area coverage, as well as the production of white cumin, is increasing year to year. However, there is a growing gap between white cumin demand and supply in Ethiopia due to its low production and productivity of white cumin. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate factors affecting the technical inefficiency of white cumin production among smallholder producers in Northwestern Ethiopia. A Semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect the primary data from 228 white cumin producers, who were selected by using a systematic random sampling technique. Moreover, a combination of data analysis methods such as descriptive statistics and the stochastic Cobb–Douglas production frontier model was used to analyze the collected data. The empirical result of the study showed that the mean technical efficiency of white cumin production was 81%. This implies that white cumin producers can boost white cumin output by 19% using the existing level of inputs and technology. The maximum likelihood estimates of the stochastic production model revealed that land, Nitrogen-Phosphate and Sulphate, and urea were statistically and positively affected the production level of white cumin. The positive effect indicates that the lack of these inputs would hamper the production of white cumin. Moreover, the maximum likelihood estimate of the stochastic frontier model coupled with the inefficiency parameters indicated that the age of household head, tropical livestock unit, land fragmentation, and membership of cooperatives were found to be statistically and negatively influence the level of technical inefficiency of white cumin producers, whereas family size, distance to the main road and credit access were found to be statistically and positively influence the level of technical inefficiency of white cumin producers. Hence, the study suggested that the government should strengthen farm cooperatives and construct roads near the residence of producers to improve their efficiency level. Moreover, the district experts should arrange an experience-sharing (which is a proxy variable for age) program to improve the efficiency level of less efficient producers by adopting the best practice of relatively efficient producers.

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Source: Own develo** using Shape file (2021)

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Availability of data and materials

The authors want to declare that they can submit the data at any time based on publisher’s request. The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study was available from the authors on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

ADEA:

Association for the Development of Education for Africa

BoFED:

Bureau of Finance and Economic Development

CC:

Contingency coefficient

CGAO:

Central Gondar zone Agriculture Office

EEA:

Ethiopian Economic Asssociation

FAO:

Food and Agriculture Organization

GDP:

Gross Domestic Product

MoA:

Ministry of Agriculture

LR:

Log-likelihood Ratio

NPC:

National Planning Commission

SSCC:

Spice Sector Strategy Coordinating Committee

TE:

Technical Efficiency

VIF:

Variance inflation factor

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to Gratitude University of Gondar for covering all the study costs. Moreover, we thank the data respondents, enumerators and district experts for their valuable response during data collection process.

Funding

The University of Gondar was provided financial support to complete this research successfully. That means all authors received research grant form University of Gondar. Therefore, all cost incurred for this research was covered by this grant.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of Gondar, P.O.BOX 196, Gondar, Ethiopia

    Tadie Mirie Abate, Abebe Birara Dessie & Betelhem Tsedalu Adane

  2. Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, University of Gondar, P.O. BOX 196, Gondar, Ethiopia

    Tiru Tesfa & Shegaw Getu

Authors
  1. Tadie Mirie Abate
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  2. Abebe Birara Dessie
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  3. Betelhem Tsedalu Adane
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  4. Tiru Tesfa
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  5. Shegaw Getu
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All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tadie Mirie Abate.

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Conflict of interest

All authors have received research grant from University of Gondar to accomplish this research for collecting research data. The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethical approval and consent to participate

Ethical clearance letters were collected from University of Gondar research and community service directorate and Central Gondar zone of face to care for both the study participants and the researchers. During survey, of facial letters were written for each kebele /villages/ informed verbal permission was obtained from each client, and confidentiality was maintained by giving codes for each respondent rather than recording their name. Study participants were informed that clients have a full right to discontinue or refuse to participate in the study. Hence, all participants throughout the research, including survey households, enumerators, the supervisors and key informants were fully informed of the objectives of the study. They were approached friendly in free moods until then do this research.

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Abate, T.M., Dessie, A.B., Adane, B.T. et al. Analysis of resource use efficiency for white cumin production among smallholder farmers empirical evidence from Northwestern Ethiopia: a stochastic frontier approach. Lett Spat Resour Sci 15, 213–235 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12076-022-00299-4

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