IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/jintdv/v3y1991i1p1-27.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic efficiency of small farmers in a changing world: A survey of recent evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Mubarak Ali
  • Derek Byerlee

Abstract

The growing literature on economic efficiency of farmers in Third World agriculture is reviewed with emphasis on conceptual and methodological issues, and empirical results of studies aimed at measuring technical efficiency. While substantial methodological progress has been made in measuring inefficiency, important conceptual problems remain. Results from regions undergoing rapid technological change suggest substantial technical inefficiencies, of the order of 30 per cent, as well as allocative inefficiencies on the use of purchased inputs. Most studies are able to relate levels of inefficiency to farmers' information and skills, and input supply problems. The results suggest that further improvements in productivity in Green Revolution areas will need to give more emphasis to exploiting the technical efficiency ‘gap’ through adaptive research, extension, farmer education, and improved input supply.

Suggested Citation

  • Mubarak Ali & Derek Byerlee, 1991. "Economic efficiency of small farmers in a changing world: A survey of recent evidence," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 3(1), pages 1-27.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:3:y:1991:i:1:p:1-27
    DOI: 10.1002/jid.4010030102
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.4010030102
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/jid.4010030102?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ali M. Oumer & Michael Burton & Atakelty Hailu & Amin Mugera, 2020. "Sustainable agricultural intensification practices and cost efficiency in smallholder maize farms: Evidence from Ethiopia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 51(6), pages 841-856, November.
    2. Kalyan Chakraborty & Basudeb Biswas & W. Cris Lewis, 2001. "Measurement of Technical Efficiency in Public Education: A Stochastic and Nonstochastic Production Function Approach," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 67(4), pages 889-905, April.
    3. Squires, Dale & Grafton, R. Quentin & Alam, Mohammed Ferdous & Omar, Ishak Haji, 2003. "Technical efficiency in the Malaysian gill net artisanal fishery," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(3), pages 481-504, July.
    4. Hailu, Getu & Weersink, Alfons & Minten, Bart, 2018. "Farming practices and productivity," IFPRI book chapters, in: The economics of teff: Exploring Ethiopia’s biggest cash crop, chapter 9, pages 205-235, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    5. Sauer, J. & Mendoza-Escalante, A., 2008. "Farming in the Eastern Amazon – Poor but Allocatively Efficient," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 43, March.
    6. Iskid Jacquet & Jieyong Wang & Jianjun Zhang & Ke Wang & Sen Liang, 2022. "An Understanding of Education in Supporting Cotton Production: An Empirical Study in Benin, West Africa," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-16, June.
    7. Jules R. Siedenburg, 2022. "Local Knowledge and Natural Resource Management in a Peasant Farming Community Facing Rapid Change: A Critical Examination," Papers 2204.04396, arXiv.org.
    8. Hedija Veronika & Fiala Roman & Kuncová Martina, 2017. "Is profitability a good proxy for efficiency? Evidence from the subsector of tour operators," Review of Economic Perspectives, Sciendo, vol. 17(4), pages 425-440, December.
    9. Seidu Al-hassan, 2008. "Technical Efficiency of Rice Farmers in Northern Ghana," Working Papers 178, African Economic Research Consortium, Research Department.
    10. Luh, Yir-Hueih, 2017. "The Impact Of Education On Agricultural Productivity: Evidence From East Asian Economies," International Journal of Food and Agricultural Economics (IJFAEC), Alanya Alaaddin Keykubat University, Department of Economics and Finance, vol. 5(4), October.
    11. Bac Ho & Teruaki Nanseki & Yosuke Chomei, 2019. "Profit efficiency of tea farmers: case study of safe and conventional farms in Northern Vietnam," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 1695-1713, August.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:jintdv:v:3:y:1991:i:1:p:1-27. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/5102/home .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.