Effect of Management Factor on Stochastic Frontier Production of Organic Rice Farming in Indonesia (Published)
The main problem in this study is the effect of management factor on stochastic frontier production of organic rice farming that emphasized production efficiency. The aim of this research was to analyze the role of managerial ability of farmers in organic rice farming production. This study was conducted on 216 organic rice farmers as a sample during two planting seasons with purposive sampling method. The sample was consisted of two farmer groups, i.e. Pangudi Bogo and Pangudi Raharjo in Dlingo Village, Mojosongo District, Boyolali Regency, Central Java Province, Indonesia. This research used stochastic frontier production function approach with cross section data and estimated with maximum likelihood estimation. The result showed that average value of production efficiency is 0.5928 and the most dominant variable in determining the technical inefficiency of organic rice farming was variable of farming system management.
Keywords: Indonesia, Management, Organic rice farming, Production, Stochastic Frontier
Impact of Soil Conservation on Farm Efficiency of Maize Growers in Arsi Negelle, Central Rift Valley of Ethiopia (Review Completed - Accepted)
Ethiopia has failed to produce enough food to feed its population and the country has remained as one of the poorest countries in the world and land degradation has been identified as one of the most serious problems that threaten the sustainability of agriculture in the country. In an effort to address this problem, the government has given due attention for soil and water conservation in the country. However, definitive and quantitative information regarding soil conservation and its interactions with farm productivity is lacking. The major concern of this study was therefore, to evaluate the impact of soil conservation interventions on technical efficiency of smallholder farm households in Arsi Negelle district of Ethiopia using cross sectional data collected from randomly selected 160 sample households during 2011/12 production season. Stochastic frontier has been used to extract the efficiency scores from the production function and to measure the impact of conservation practices on technical efficiency; Propensity Score Matching (PSM) was employed. The logistic regression estimation of factors affecting participation in soil conservation revealed that educational level of the household head, farming experience and frequency of extension contact significantly affected the participation decision of households in soil conservation. In matching processes, kernel matching with band width of 0.5 was found to be the best matching algorism. This method was also checked for covariate balancing with a standardized bias, t-test, and joint significance level tests. The results revealed that households that participate in conservation practice have got an improvement of 3.16 percent in technical efficiency than those households that were not participated which shows participation has a significant, positive and robust impact on the outcome variables. Therefore, policy makers and other stockholders should give due attention in soil conservation.
Keywords: Impact, PSM, Soil Conservation, Stochastic Frontier, Technical Efficiency