Thesis (Ph.D. (Agricultural Economics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / Various types of management practices/institutional arrangements of the irrigation
schemes exist in the world. According to the principles delineated in literatures, these
irrigation schemes are categorized in terms of their management practices. The study was
designed to compare the level of technical efficiency of farmers at different management
practices of the irrigation schemes (i.e. integrated, specialised and multipurpose water
management practices of the irrigation schemes) in Limpopo Province. Data were
collected using a structured questionnaire which was administered on 200 farmers at
different irrigation schemes. Stochastic frontier production function of Cobb-Douglas type
was employed to analyse the data and thereby ascertain the level of technical efficiency
and its determinants.
The results indicated the mean technical efficiency of 0.74, 0.72 and 0.76 for the
integrated, specialised and multipurpose water management practices of the irrigation
schemes respectively which implied that, there is a greater scope to increase maize,
tomato, onion and spinach production with the current technology and resources available
at the irrigation schemes. The most important contributors in maize, tomato, onion and
spinach production efficiencies were seed, fertilizer, capital and land. Thus an appropriate
amount of seed, fertilizer, capital and land could increase the productivity of maize,
tomato, onion and spinach.
The results further revealed that education level of farmers, age of the farmers and land
size were negatively significant toward the technical inefficiency of farmers at different
irrigation schemes, which imply that an increase in any of the three variables will reduce
the inefficiency and enhance the efficiency. While the family size of the farmer was
positively significant, which implies that the bigger the family size, the higher the
inefficiency farmers would become for the production of maize, tomato, onion and spinach. Gender and income level of the farmers at different irrigation schemes were revealed to be insignificant toward the inefficiency. The institutional arrangements or the management practice of the irrigation schemes showed slight differences in affecting the efficiency of farmers at different irrigation schemes.
Policies designed to educate famers at different irrigation schemes through proper
agricultural extension services could have a great impact in increasing the level of
efficiency and hence maize, tomato, onion and spinach productivities. The Department of
Agriculture should allocate more funds to strengthening the extension directorate and
expanding the delivery of extension services to farmers at different irrigation schemes.
Irrigation schemes were established in order to insure food security, alleviate poverty, job
creation, among others. Therefore, it is of paramount importance for the government of
South Africa in collaboration with the private sector to revitalise the irrigation schemes in
Limpopo Province irrespective of the institutional arrangements. It is of vital concern for the policy makers to focus on the benefits of economies of scale in agricultural farming
system. Therefore, land size should be increased for the farmers in integrated water
management practice of the irrigation schemes to an optimum level in order for them to
improve the level of technical efficiency.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ul/oai:ulspace.ul.ac.za:10386/3853 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Hlongwane, Johannes Jan |
| Contributors | Belete, A., Chauke, P. K. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | xx, 263 leaves |
| Relation |
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