Productivity Growth of ECOWAS Common Crops: A Tale of Two Competing Frontier Methods of Analysis

This study examines productivity growth of 3 ECOWAS crops, namely, rice, cotton and millet, using both Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and Data Envelopment analysis (DEA). The data cover a 45 year period (1961-2005). Calculations are based on data collected from FAOSTAT database, International Rice research Institute (IRRI) world rice statistics, and international cotton advisory committee database. The results for both SFA and DEA show that (1) there are inefficiencies but productivity progress among ECOWAS member nations producing rice, cotton and millet. (2) Though, magnitudes of the inefficiencies and productivity progress vary across models applied and by segmentation of the data set, there is little or no conflict in the overall results. (3) Technical change has had the greatest impact on productivity, indicating that producers have a tendency to catch-up with the front runners.