The Paradigm of African Agricultural Efficiency, 1967-2012: What Does Meta-Analysis Reveal?

The present study investigates the development (i.e., rise or decline) in African agricultural efficiency level and what drives the efficiency over the years. A total of 379 frontier studies resulting in 534 farm level efficiency estimates were considered using meta-regression analysis (MRA) for the empirical analysis. The results show that mean efficiency estimates from the selected case studies decrease significantly as year of survey in the primary study increases. Apparently, this implies that over the years, negative efficiency change characterized the growth of African agriculture and food production. The effect of other study attributes considered in the MRA show that studies published in Journals, with parametric and primal technology specification produced significantly higher efficiency estimates, while those published in top ranking journals and with Cobb-Douglass and Translog functional forms produced significantly lower efficiency estimates. Other results show that education, followed by experience; extension and credit are the major drivers of agricultural efficiency levels in Africa over the years. Given these findings; we suggest policies that encourage investment in human capital development associated with education and extension should be prioritized to enhance the growth of agriculture and food production in the region.