Measuring the Technical and Scale Efficiency of Smallholder Maize (Zea mays) Farmers in Cameroon: The Case of the Centre Region

Urbanisation has led to the development of new markets, including that for cereals for human consumption, where maize cultivation has taken on an important role among smallholder producers in some countries, such as Cameroon. However, the cultivation of maize in the centre region of Cameroon raises several questions, including the efficiency of these farmers. This article presents the level and determinants of technical performance of smallholder maize farmers. The research method was based on field surveys. The study was carried out between September 2019 and December 2020 in the Centre Region of Cameroon. The research methods used included field work, field surveys through semi-structured interviews on 1060 (545 women and 515 men) maize farm managers who were selected in a reasoned method based on the file of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Cameroon. Data from the study was analysed using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and the Tobit model allowed us to identify the determinants of the performance of these maize farms. The results show that the efficiency scores of the production and income outputs are 0.7773 and 0.6707, respectively, and provide evidence for the inefficiency of smallholder maize farmers in the Centre Region. Gender, cropping system, maize variety and number of treatments have a significant and positive influence on the productive efficiency of the farms while the only determinant that influences the income efficiency of the farmers is the maize variety used. Ultimately, smallholder maize farmers are not performing well in terms of both production and income. Value chain actors need to act on three main pillars around family farms: socio-economic characteristics (the place of women and education policy), the production system (access to quality seeds, and production techniques) and institutional factors (access to extension, financing and membership to a producer organization).