Technical efficiency of maize-based farm irrigators in the Eastern Cape province: a stochastic frontier model approach

Maize production is the most important field crop in South Africa. It has been produced from ancient years, with Mpumalanga and North West Provinces being principal producers. Maize is a widely produced and dominant ground crop because it is resistant, requires less labour, is rich in nutritional power and starch, grows relatively fast and is easily cultivated like other ground crops. Most of the maize produced in South Africa is consumed domestically. Despite the vast tracts of arable land and the universal land reform that has been implemented for 25 years, farmers in South Africa’s former homelands cultivate only small food plots on which they primarily cultivate maize and a small number of vegetables. The objective of this study was to investigate the technical efficiency of maize farmers under small-scale irrigation systems. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 120 maize farmers. The study used the STATA 15 program for analysis and utilised descriptive statistics and a stochastic production front model. Maize production in the study area was dominated by men (78%) with an average age of 60 years and an average family size of 4 persons per household. Smallholder irrigators have primary education, which means that they can read and interpret agricultural information. Farmers have at least ten years of agricultural experience on average. Taking into consideration high farm productivity, smallholder maize-based farmers were efficient in their use of resources. The allocative use of resources such as farm size, farm labour, fertiliser and seeds led to the identification of the optimum level of efficiency for the cultivation of maize. The level of technical efficiency for maize cultivation was 84%, indicating that 16% of the maize crop was not utilized by smallholder maize-based farmers in the study area. The study suggests that the Government and the private sector should improve agricultural techniques such as manure and improved seeds that are prepared early and available at a small and affordable cost to increase maize productivity.