Economic Efficiency of Maize Production in the Context of Climate Change Adaptation in the Okpara Sub-Basin

Abstract

This study estimates the technical, allocative, and economic efficiency of maize-producing farms in Benin and identifies the determining factors of these efficiencies in the context of adaptation to climate change. To achieve this, data was collected from a sample of 402 corn farmers randomly selected from the municipalities most vulnerable to the effects of climate change and located within the Okpara watershed perimeters. The parametric stochastic frontier approach was adopted to estimate a seedling-log stochastic frontier and a dual cost function of corn farms using the Frontier program of Stata 13 software. The Tobit regression model was used to identify the factors determining the efficiency of producers. The results show that the operators are all technically efficient and have significant random effects. However, the results from the cost frontier show the presence of allocative inefficiency within production units. The estimated technical, allocative, and economic efficiencies are, respectively, 0.94, 0.60 and 0.57 on average. Finally, estimation of the determinants of efficiency has shown that the supply of mineral manure, experience in maize production, crop rotation as well as the level of education are the main determinants of efficiency. It is necessary to support corn producers on cultivation techniques, subsidize fertilizers, and promote literacy in the face of the effects of climate change.