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Measuring Technical Efficiency of Wheat Farmers in Egypt

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Author Info
André Croppenstedt (Agricultural and Development Economics Division, Food and Agriculture Organization)
Abstract

Liberalization of Egyptian agricultural policy and new wheat technology has led to significant increases in area allocated to wheat as well as wheat yields. The wheat self-sufficiency ratio increased from 21 percent in 1986 to about 59 percent over the 2001-03 period. However, the country still imports 4-5 million tonnes of wheat per year. This paper addresses the issue of what kind of output gains can be achieved from improving technical efficiency, i.e. how much more output can be produced with the given levels of inputs and current technology. On average wheat farmers are found to operate 20 percent below the potential output. Better information on irrigation management and two or more extension visits were found to raise output by 14 and 7 percent respectively. However, neither factor was found to affect technical efficiency. Technical efficiency was found not to vary with farm size.

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Publisher Info
Paper provided by Agricultural and Development Economics Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO - ESA) in its series Working Papers with number 05-06.

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Length: 13 pages
Date of creation: 2005
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:fao:wpaper:0506

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Related research
Keywords: Egypt; Wheat; Technical Efficiency; Stochastic Production Frontier.;

Find related papers by JEL classification:
C21 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Single Equation Models; Single Variables - - - Cross-Sectional Models; Spatial Models; Treatment Effect Models
O13 - Economic Development, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Agriculture; Natural Resources; Environment; Other Primary Products
Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets

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References listed on IDEAS
Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
  1. Baffes, John & Gautam, Madhur, 1996. "Price Responsiveness, Efficiency, and the Impact of Structural Adjustment on Egyptian Crop Producers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(4), pages 765-771, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Richards, Alan, 1994. "The Egyptian farm labor market revisited," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2), pages 239-261, April. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  3. Shousha, Fawaz M. & Pautsch, Gregory R., 1997. "Economic reform and aggregate cropping patterns for Egypt," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 17(2-3), pages 265-275, December. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  4. Alderman, Harold & von Braun, Joachim, 1986. "Egypt's food subsidy policy : Lessons and options," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 11(3), pages 223-237, August. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  5. Moussa, M Z & Jones, T T, 1991. "Efficiency and Farm Size in Egypt: A Unit Output Price Profit Function Approach," Applied Economics, Taylor and Francis Journals, vol. 23(1), pages 21-29, Part A, J.
  6. Bruton, Henry J, 1983. "Egypt's Development in the Seventies," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(4), pages 679-704, July.
  7. Caudill, Steven B & Ford, Jon M & Gropper, Daniel M, 1995. "Frontier Estimation and Firm-Specific Inefficiency Measures in the Presence of Heteroscedasticity," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 13(1), pages 105-11, January.
  8. Lau, Lawrence J & Yotopoulos, Pan A, 1971. "A Test for Relative Efficiency and Application to Indian Agriculture," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 61(1), pages 94-109, March.
  9. Meeusen, Wim & van den Broeck, Julien, 1977. "Efficiency Estimation from Cobb-Douglas Production Functions with Composed Error," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 18(2), pages 435-44, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  10. Aigner, Dennis & Lovell, C. A. Knox & Schmidt, Peter, 1977. "Formulation and estimation of stochastic frontier production function models," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 21-37, July. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  11. Esfahani, Hadi Salehi, 1987. "Technical change, employment, and supply response of agriculture in the Nile Delta : A system-wide approach," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1), pages 167-196, February. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  12. Richmond, J, 1974. "Estimating the Efficiency of Production," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 15(2), pages 515-21, June. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  13. Kherallah, Mylene & Lofgren, Hans & Gruhn, Peter & Reeder, Meyra M., 2000. "Wheat policy reform in Egypt: adjustment of local markets and options for future reforms," Research reports 115, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). [Downloadable!]
  14. George E. Battese, 1997. "A Note On The Estimation Of Cobb-Douglas Production Functions When Some Explanatory Variables Have Zero Values," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 48(1-3), pages 250-252. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  15. Caudill, Steven B. & Ford, Jon M., 1993. "Biases in frontier estimation due to heteroscedasticity," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 41(1), pages 17-20. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  16. Afriat, Sidney N, 1972. "Efficiency Estimation of Production Function," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 13(3), pages 568-98, October. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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