Economic Efficiency in Rainfed Farming Sector in Sinnar State, Sudan

Abstract

The main objective of this study was to estimate the efficiency of resource use and to determine the optimum crop mix that would maximize the farmer returns in the rainfed sector in Sinnar State, Sudan. The study depended mainly on primary data that was collected by field survey. A multi-stage stratified random sample technique was used for classifying the farmers and assist in determining the sample size. A total of 173 households was chosen (104 households representing the traditional farmers and 69 households representing the semi-mechanized farmers). Data were collected through personal interviewing the selected farmers about all their farming aspects related to farming season 2011/12 using a structured questionnaire. Linear programming technique was used for analyzing the parameters of the study. The entire sample was firstly classified into two categories: Traditional farmers and semi-mechanized farmers, and secondly the semi-mechanized farmers were further classified into three categories based on farm size; namely, small farmers with farm size of less than 500 hectares, medium farms with farm size of 500 to 1000 hectares and large farms with farm size greater than 1000 hectares. The technical efficiency of resource use indicated that the resource in both sectors for the production of all cultivated crops was not used efficiently. The results revealed that operating capital in the traditional sector was underutilized and labor and seeds were overutilized. In the semi-mechanized sector, operating capital and herbicides were underutilized, while labor and seeds were over utilized. The farmers basic plans showed that the traditional farmers cultivated a combination of sorghum, sesame, pearl millet, cowpea and groundnut, while the semimechanized farmers cultivated a combination of sorghum, sesame, pearl millet and sunflower. The allocative efficiency analysis revealed that the optimum cropping pattern for the traditional farmers is by cultivating sorghum and cowpea. The optimum cropping pattern for the semimechanized farms is by cultivating only pearl millet for the small farms, sesame and sunflower for the medium farms and sorghum and sunflower for the large farms. This optimum cropping pattern increased the income of farmers by 43%, 31.3%, 24.7% and 24.2% for the traditional farmers, semi-mechanized farmers, semi-mechanized large farmers and semimechanized small farmer, respectively. The study suggested that the government is to facilitate timely provision of necessary financial resources to farmers for improving the efficiency of resource use. The Agricultural Extension Department is to educate the farmers about the optimum use of inputs