Technical and Chemical Input use Efficiencies of Small-scale Sugarcane Growers : A Case of Northern KwaZulu-Natal

Abstract

This study measures the technical, scale and chemical use efficiency of small-scale sugarcane growers in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa. The paper applied the input-oriented approach assuming a variable return to scale Data Envelope Analysis (DEA), Slack Based Measure model and Truncated regression model to estimate productive efficiency and its determinants. The multi-stage sampling technique was applied to collect cross-sectional data from 300 small-scale sugarcane growers for the 2015-2016 production season using a questionnaire. The estimated mean technical, scale and chemical use efficiency decomposed using the input-oriented DEA were 72.5%, 77.9% and 68.3%, respectively. Using the truncated regression analysis, we found that education, off-farm income, farming experience, extension support, and land size were significant determinants of technical efficiency. However, farming experience together with extension support and land size were negatively related to...