The Effiency Effects of Technical Change in Malian Rice Production

The general objective of this study is to examine the efficiency, and the factors that influence the efficiency of irrigated rice farmers in Mali. A special focus is devoted to the quantifying effects of irrigation scheme rehabilitation. A stochastic parametric frontier analysis is employed using a cross-sectional data set consisting 147 households that are cultivating 398 rice plots. It is found that for rehabilitated areas there is more room to increase rice production by making a better use of the existing technology. For these villages policies should be directed to increase the productivity of manual-labor through extension education or labor-saving technologies. On the other hand, farmers in non-re­habilitated villages are relatively more efficient indicating that there is more need for technology improvements, such as improvements in irrigation infrastructure that can enhance productive use of seed and nitrogen. A clear message of the study is that the extension services should be directed separately to heterogeneous areas. It is necessary to identify the structural differences in production environments between the areas that are located in the same region.