Analysis of Technical Efficiency in Sorghum Production : The case of small-holder farmers in Raya-azebo District of Southern Tigray, Ethiopia

Crop yield can be increased by expanding crop area, raising yield per unit area or by growing more crops per year. However, in our context, where financial resources of small-holder farmers are limited and farm technologies are scarce and relatively expensive, improving level of technical efficiency of individual farmers is the cheapest method. In the study the estimated mean level of technical efficiency of sorghum producers was about 79%. This reveals that in the short run there exists a possibility to increase the level of sorghum output by about 21% using the existing local practices and technical knowledge of the relatively efficient farmers. Off-farm occupation has negative effect on the level of technical efficiency. Middle age farmers are also relatively more efficient than the youngsters and old farmers. Weeding and extension contact also affect technical efficiency positively and significantly. Hence, the result conveys important message for readers who closely work with small-holder farmers how to improve productivity by applying low external inputs.