Production efficiency of rice farms in Thailand and Cambodia

a comparative analysis of Ubon Ratchathani and Stung Treng provinces

authored by: Axel Ebers, Trung Thanh Nguyen, Ulrike Grote
Abstract: Rice farmers in developing countries need to increase production efficiency in order to meet a growing rice demand. To identify and compare the determinants of rice production efficiency at different stages of economic development, a one-stage stochastic frontier model is applied to a cross-sectional dataset collected in 2013 of 623 households in Ubon Ratchathani (Thailand) and 407 households in Stung Treng (Cambodia). The results indicate that the average level of rice production efficiency is 72 % in Thailand and 64 % in Cambodia. There are a number of factors that commonly affect the production efficiency in both countries. These factors are the farm size, per capita income, amount of agricultural credit, degree of commercialization, and share of nonfarm income. However, there are also a number of country-specific factors that are unique to the respective environments. These factors are the distance to fields, mechanization, agricultural assets, share of remittances, education of household heads, and distance to town in Thailand, and household size in Cambodia. These findings suggest that promoting the development of household capital, access to rural infrastructure as well as the specialization and commercialization of rice production would contribute to increasing production efficiency of rice farms in developing countries.
Organisation(s): Institute of Economic Policy
Institute of Environmental Economics and World Trade
Type: Article
Journal: Paddy and Water Environment
Volume: 15
Pages: 79-92
No. of pages: 14
ISSN: 1611-2490
Publication date: 01.01.2017
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Environmental Engineering, Agronomy and Crop Science, Water Science and Technology
Sustainable Development Goals: SDG 8 - Decent Work and Economic Growth
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1007/s10333-016-0530-6 (Access: Closed)