Maize Farming In Ethiopia

The agriculture sector in Ethiopia plays pivotal roles in economic growth, poverty alleviation, employment creation, foreign exchange earnings and food security. Despite the enormous contribution over the past years, its significance is limited because of various factors and hence it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet the food requirements of the growing population (Jon, 2007; Abera, 2011; UNDP, 2013). One of the significant contributors for its deprived performance is the low productivity of the sector in general and cereal production in particular over the past years (Alemayehu, 2009; Alemayehu et al. 2012). Such low productivity leads to increasing poverty and food insecurity of rural poor farm households in the country.

During the

Wambui, 2005; Ephraim, 2007; Elibariki et al., 2008; Endrias, et al., 2010), Although the analysis of technical efficiency of maize farming is important, there is limited empirical research done so far in Ethiopia particularly on the estimation of other efficiencies (allocative and economic) of maize farming in the country. Understanding the levels of these efficiencies and their determinants contribute a lot to the identification of production constraints at farm level and thereby improve the food security and income sources in the farm sector and the rest of the economy. Furthermore, such knowledge may help policy-makers to design appropriate policies to increase agricultural productivity through improving on farm-and crop specific efficiencies. This research aims to take a step towards filling the above noticeable gaps of knowledge by collecting cross-sectional data from maize-dominated smallholder farmers of southwestern