Technical Efficiency Analysis of Pineapple Production at Madhupur Upazila of Tangail District, Bangladesh

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to analyse the technical efficiency and its determinants of pineapple production at Madhupur upazila of Tangail district in Bangladesh. Cross-section data from a sample of 100 pineapple producers during the 2016-17 cropping season were collected by applying multistage random sampling technique. Farm specific technical efficiency scores were estimated using the Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier production function approach. Empirical findings show that the estimated technical efficiencies of the sampled farmers’ range from 61.61% to 99.95% with the mean technical efficiency of 91.14%. The result suggests that, on an average, farmers in the study area can potentially increase their productivity by 8.86% through more efficient use of inputs. The estimated stochastic production frontier model indicates that input variables such as area, tillage cost, seedling cost and human labour cost were statistically significant variables to increase the quantity of pineapple production. Technical inefficiency effect model identifies that age of farmers had significant positive, but years of schooling and extension contact had significant negative effect on farmers’ inefficiency. The study therefore recommends that government should focus on the ways of attracting and encouraging the youths as they are more efficient and are likely to be able to properly allocate resources and are willing to adopt new technical innovations. Besides, policies and strategies should be directed towards increasing farmers’ formal as well as informal education through the implementation of effective training programmes by the well-trained extension workers.