1 Introduction
1.1 Research background
Pineapple is the second most important tropical fruit in terms of production volume in WestAfrica, after banana (FAO,2009).In Benin, the rural sector occupies 70% of the work force,contributes 39% to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and provides 90% of the export earnings(MAEP, 2015). In order to reduce poverty, the Benin government has decided to promote newexport crops including pineapple (Ananas comosus). Pineapple is one of the leading commercialfruit crops grown in Benin. Local production of pineapples is of great importance for Benin; Hiscontribution Represented 1.2% of total GDP(Gross Domestic Production) and 4.3% of agriculturalGDP (INSAE, 2014).It is the main crop in the southern part, mainly in the Atlantic department,where it is cultivated by about 70% of the producers. The Atlantic department realizes about 95%of the total Benin pineapple production (Helvetas-Bénin, 2008) Compared to cotton and cashew,the economic contribution of the pineapple industry in the national economy is not yet veryimportant. The government of Benin wishes to increase the pineapple production step by step to600,000 tons, at the same time to make the Benin pineapple more available for local andinternational trade. In the long term, there is a plan to export the pineapple in order to improve thetrade balance of Benin. This was declared by the minister of agriculture of Benin. In addition toresearch for improving the varieties,a laboratory will be set up in the south of Benin.
Also, courses about processing techniques and respect of quality norms will be established. InBenin, horticultural crops such as pineapple have a significant place. These crops not onlycontribute to the share of agriculture in national economy, but possess a great potential andcomparative advantage to compete in the liberalized economy. Pineapple has been identified as oneof the horticultural crops with enormous potentials for nutritional and health benefits, foreignexchange earnings, industrial growth and development. plants in the rural areas which willimprove the quality of life of the rural population and reduce the rate of rural-urban migration.Also, the expansion of local industries for Pineapple can increase national income as well asprovide higher incomes for farmers involved in its production.The central objective of thisresearch is to estimate the technical efficiency (TE) of pineapple production of households inALLADA city and identify the factors that determine TE. Analyzing the pineapple productionefficiency in ALLADA is very important in planning socio-economic policy for the following 3reasons: first, to provide quantitative efficient measures of this product in the region; second, todetermine optimal allocation of inputs towards a higher productive efficiency; and finally, toevaluate potentials of inefficient factors in the pineapple production process.
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1.2 Purpose and Significance of Research
1.2.1 Purpose
First, to find the determinants of the technical efficiency of small pineapple farmers fromAtlantique especially in Allada state. We should note that this agricultural activity is characterizedby a highly rural life and the concentration of small-scale farmers, which is common in most of thefruit crops around the country.
Second, to bring the government to see the potential of in pineapple production and the necessarypolicies for better response. The research of BENIN agricultural ministry confirms that pineappleproduction systems are financially and economically viable, and that Benin has a comparativeadvantage in producing pineapple. Better analysis of the value added in the pineapple industryreveals it releases a wealth of tens of billions of CFA (BENIN laboratory of Support toManagement and Innovative Studies 2013). In short, all studies agree that pineapple production isprofitable both for the producer and for the nation. However, no study takes into account theefficiency of pineapple farmers in the town of Allada. To accomplish our objective, we willeconometrically estimate both a stochastic frontier production function and a technical inefficiencymodel.
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2 Definition and Theory Basis
2.1 Definition
2.1.1 Technical and allocative efficiencies
Michael Farrell (1957) is the one who introduced the concept of efficiency. Indeed hedemonstrated that efficiency has two components. These include technical efficiency (TE) andallocative efficiency (AE). Farrell's methodology shows that economic efficiency (EE) is theproduct of technical efficiency (TE) and allocative efficiency (AE) where, TE is the ability toproduce on the isoquant boundary, while AE is the ability to produce at a given level of outputusing the minimum cost input reports. Technical inefficiency is defined by deviations from theisoquant border, and finally the allocative inefficiency is translated by differences in relation to theratios of minimum cost inputs. Economic Efficiency is translated as the ability of a firm to producea fixed quantity of production at a minimum cost according to a given amount of technology(Farrell 1957, Kopp and Diewert 1982). In his idea Farrel demonstrates that, "TE is the ability of acompany to produce a maximum according to a set of precise inputs; or it is the ability of a farmbusiness to minimize the amount of inputs for a specific level of production. The first measurefocuses on inputs while the second focuses on measures of technical efficiency outcomes.Allocative efficiency is defined as the ability of an enterprise to maximize the use of inputs atwell-defined input prices and production technology. From the point of view of allocation theefficiency of the use of an input is determined by the equality of the value of the marginal productwith its price. "An efficient enterprise is defined by good technical and allocative efficiency."Assume in Figure 2-1, that there are two inputs (X1 and X2) used by a firm to produce a singleoutput (Y) with the assumption of constant returns to scale The technical efficiency of theenterprises is represented by the curve II 'with which one we can measure the technical efficiencyIf a company produces a production unit with quantity inputs at the point R then RS is themeasured distance of technical inefficiency. In short, the reduction in the use of inputs in this RSproportion will not affect the quantity produced, it is expressed by the ratio SR / OR expressed as apercentage. all inputs in this percentage will result in technically efficient production The TE of afirm is measured by the ratio: TE = OS / OR A firm is technically efficient if its TE takes the valueof 1. The enterprise is technically inefficient if its TE value is less than 1. when the technicalefficiency is equal to 1, the enterprise is said to be completely efficient. With point S in theproduction indifference curve, the company could be 100% technically efficient.The mainmotivation for measuring the technical efficiency of production processes is to formalize theresponsiveness of the resulting yields to different inputs. The observed variations in thisresponsiveness are mainly due to differences in the technology that is used by firms, differences inthe levels of efficiency of the production processes and differences in the context in whichproduction takes place. Therefore, the economic efficiency is a function of the technical efficiency.
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2.2 Theory basis
2.2.1 Theory of efficiency
The neoclassical theory is based on pure and perfect competition of companies calledproblems of efficiency and productive performance of organizations. however, the theory has beencriticized and has limitations. Neoclassical theory says that the most competitive firms on themarket are those that produce with the greatest efficiency and, therefore, combine a betterunderstanding of the factors of production. So to make the economy a system of full competition,pure and perfect, is far from reality. the markets are filled with surprise in practice and the risk offailure failure can not be ruled out.
Hirshman (1992) shows that the economic system could not ensure that businesses willalways behave respectfully and effectively. And that's what is expected of them. In order to avoidthe general economic issue, the result of cumulative behaviors and a significant proportion ofbusinesses, it is necessary to have an accurate analysis to describe and explain the reason for thefailure or success.
The effectiveness theory of harvey leibenstein (1966) to illustrate the efficiency of productionis: q = f (k, l), the production function of an enterprise with output q, k and l, respectively, capitaland labor. by definition, it can be said that when the company is on the frontier of productionpossibilities means that it is technically efficient, by definition, with a given amount of factors, itis the highest level of production produced. the concept of efficiency or inefficiency) wasdeveloped in 1966 by leibenstein, mainly for one reason or another, the work is not as effective inleading the company towards its goal of maximization.
According to Leibenstein, inefficiency, - x is the type of inefficiency resulting from themisuse of resources within the organization of production. When organizations do not producewith the best resources, we talk about efficiency x. Thus, technology and factor endowments,which companies can achieve different results in terms of productivity. therefore, firms can not beat the "frontier" of all efficient production when all are not in the same way, the existence of aninput x, distinct from conventional factors (capital and labor) , reflecting the quality ofmanagement. resources within the organization.
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3.1 Status Production Of Allada city.......................... 16
3.2 problems of small producers.................................16
3.3 advantage of small producers.................................17
4 Methodology, Data Resources and Hypothesis............................... 19
4.1 Data Resources..................................... 19
4.1.1 Selection of the study area................................... 19
4.1.2 Selecting the surveyed, pineapple farmers and sampling......................... 20
5 Results, Discussions..............................25
5.1The positive Analysis of small farmers'pineapple production on Allada.................................. 25
5.1.1 Analysis of production factors .........................................25
5.1.2 Analysis of socio-economics factors.................................26
5 Results and discussions
5.1 The positive Analysis of small farmers'pineapple production
5.1.1 Analysis of production factors
The maximum likelihood estimates (MLE) of the parameters of the stochastic frontierproduction function for pineapple farmers are presented in Table5-1. The sigma-squared (0.73) ofthe estimated model was statistically significant at 1% and different from zero. This indicates agood fit and the correctness of the distributional form assumed for the composite error term. Thevariance ratio, known as gamma ( ? ) which is associated with the variance of technicalinefficiency effects in the stochastic frontier, is estimated to be 0.99 indicating that systematicinfluences that are unexplained by the production function are the dominant sources of randomerror. This means that 99% of the variation in output among the pineapple farmers was due todisparities in technical efficiency.
Results from table 5-1 revealed that the coefficients of variables related to quantity of suckers(2X ) is positive and statistically significant at 1% while farm size (1X ) negative and statisticallysignificant at 5% , total quantity of labour used (3X ) quantity of fertilizers (4X ) was negative andstatistically significant at 1% implying that these variables were the factors affecting yield ofpineapple farmers in ALLADA area and any increase of (2X ) in the value of these variables wouldincrease pineapple production but any increase of farm size (1X ) labour(3X ) and fertilizers, (4X )would decrease pineapple production. This can probably be attributed to over utilization of labourand fertilizer used by the producers. We can also see in Figure 5-1 the efficiency of the farmers arebelow 40% the higher efficiency found is in the village of loto-denou, while the farmers of Goviéhave the lowest technical efficiency.
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6 Conclusions and policy suggestions
6.1 Conclusions
This study used a stochastic frontier function model to estimate the technical efficiency ofpineapple production in ALLADA. The analysis revealed an average level of technical efficiencyof 0.23. The efficient level indicating that the output realized was below attainable maximum,hence there is still scope for improvement in pineapple production in ALLADA city in particularand Benin in general. The return to scale of 0.77 suggests that the production function wascharacterized by decreasing returns to scale. Results from the study indicated that except quantityof suckers, the farm size, quantity of labour and quantity of ferilizers are used excessively.thisexcessivity comfirm the ANALYSIS OF PINEAPPLE PRODUCTION SYSTEMS INBENIN ,2012 of...V.N. Fassinou Hotegni, W.J.M. Lommen, J.G.A.J. van der Vorst, E.K. Agbossou,P.C. Struik who find that the planting density was lower, the number of fertiliser applications washigher, So the good adjustments in the production inputs such as quantity of suckers, and theefficient utilization of fertilizer and labour and the farm size could lead to increased production ofpineapple in the study area ;
The positive coefficients for Man (1Z ), secondary (4Z ) and no alphabetize (6Z ) indicatedthat these factors increase the technical inefficiency of the pineapple farmers while negativecoefficients for credit (5Z ) indicated that factors lead to decrease the technical inefficiency ofpineapple farmers in the study area. Increase productivity and improvement in technical can beachieved by addressing the factors responsible for the inefficiencies. Akhilomen et al.; AJEA, 5(3):267-280, 2015; Article no. AJEA.2015.030 278. The study recommends that policies that wouldfocus on ways of attracting and encouraging the youths who are agile and stronger to embark onpineapple production should be pursued such as the setting up of fruit processing factories orindustries in the rural areas. Agricultural development programs and policies should respect andencourage gender woman to improve accessibility to resources and transform productivity amongpineapple farmers in the study area.
It would also be advisable to pay particular attention to take proper steps to enhance theexperience level of the farmers. A scope of proper training facilities may be provided to thefarmers for upgrading their productive capacity. Farmers should also be encouraged to review thepolitics of cooperatives as well as taught the importance of being members of cooperatives as thiswill strengthen their role in inputs acquisition and marketing of their produce.
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