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© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Improving profit efficiency in vegetable farming, especially for Spinach, is vital in enhancing income, livelihoods, and nutrition security and reducing the poverty of smallholder farmers, particularly in developing countries like South Africa. Despite the country’s potential, spinach production faces major challenges, including unreliable markets, low adoption of modern production systems, and production inefficiencies that affect farm returns. This has been attributed to a lack of adequate and reliable information to guide producers on measures for improving productivity through cost effective production systems and efficient market systems, eventually leading to profit inefficiency. Therefore, this study sought to assess the profit efficiency of smallholder spinach producers under irrigated agriculture in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. The study made use of multi-stratified sampling procedures to select 150 spinach producers under irrigation. The stochastic profit frontier function was applied to assess the profit efficiency of smallholder spinach farmers. The results indicated that most farmers operated in farm sizes of 3 ha with an average age of 48 years. The estimates of the stochastic profit frontier function showed that farm size, cost of fertilizer, seed, and pesticides increased profit while labour used decreased profit. Findings indicated a 10% profit loss due to a mixture of technical and allocative inefficiency in the production of spinach, while farmers were able to attain an average profit inefficiency of 90%. Moreover, findings revealed numerous factors that positively affected the profit efficiency of spinach farmers, including socioeconomic, institutional, and cultural. The study findings imply that profit efficiency can increase significantly through the use of high-quality fertilizer, seeds, and pesticides. The allocative efficiency results indicate that improvement in access to extension services, farmers’ level of education, and farm experience can result in the increased allocative efficiency of spinach farmers in the study site. The study further suggests that smallholder farmers must adopt innovative technology to enhance their agricultural productivity, and this is likely to improve household income and nutrition security. Thus, the study recommends that policymakers and government must invest in farmers’ education through effective extension delivery programs and the provision of credit to help farmers increase their profit efficiency.

Details

Title
Assessment of Profit Efficiency for Spinach Production under Small-Scale Irrigated Agriculture in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
Author
Mdoda, Lelethu 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Obi, Ajuruchukwu 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Ncoyini-Manciya, Zoleka 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Mzuyanda Christian 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Mayekiso, Anele 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Discipline of Agricultural Economics, School of Agriculture, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Kwa-Zulu-Natal, Private Bag X01 Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg 3209, South Africa; [email protected] 
 Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, University of Fort Hare, Private Bag X1314, Alice 5700, South Africa; [email protected] 
 Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, North West University, Private Bag X2046, Mmabatho 2046, South Africa; [email protected] 
 Department of Agricultural Economics and Animal Science, University of Limpopo, Private Bag X1106, Sovenga 0727, South Africa; [email protected] 
First page
2991
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
20711050
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2637830412
Copyright
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.