How to Cite:
Shehe M Harith, Adrian Barongo, "Leveraging the Stochastic Frontier Model for Optimal Technical Efficiency in Tanzanian Maize and Paddy Crops Production" International Journal of Humanities Science Innovations and Management Studies, Vol. 2, No. 5, pp. 43-56, 2025.

Abstract:
Food production has remained low, failing to meet household and national requirements, which points to technical inefficiency in production. Thus, the current study estimated the Technical Efficiency (TE) of maize and paddy production in the mainland of Tanzania. Specifically, the study analyzed the technical efficiency level and examined socio-demographic and institutional factors influencing the technical inefficiency. The targeted population consisted of 3352 households and a sample of 1699 heads of households studied from the National Panel Survey of 2014/15. The study applied the Stochastic Frontier Analysis to estimate the level of Technical Efficiency. The results indicate that, on average, the typical maize and paddy technical efficiency levels are 51.45% and 33.27%, respectively. This implies that there is a possibility that, on average, small-scale maize and paddy farmers could increase output by 48.55% and 66.73% without having to employ more inputs. The majority of maize farmers lie from 0.4 to 0.6, and for paddy lie from 0.2 to 0.4, which represent 63% and 48% respectively. Thus, maize farmers were more significantly efficient than paddy farmers. But also, the frontier model revealed that younger farmers are technically efficient compared to older farmers; educated maize farmers were more efficient than lowly educated; married farmers were more efficient than unmarried. Similarly, smallholder farmers with larger households were more efficient than those with smaller household sizes.

Keywords: Maize and Paddy Production, Technical Efficiency, Household Demand.

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