Soil and water conservation technologies and technical efficiency in banana production in upper Rwizi micro-catchment, Uganda

The determinants of the technical efficiency (TE) of adopters and non-adopters of soil and water conservation (SWC) technologies in the upper Rwizi micro-catchment of south-western Uganda are compared using cross-sectional survey data from 246 smallholder farmers. A Cobb-Douglas stochastic production frontier and a probit selection model fitted to generate inverse Mills ratios for adopters and non-adopters are used in the analysis. On average, the adopters of SWC technologies were found to own more land and livestock and to obtain more output per unit of land than their non-adopter counterparts. In addition, adopters exhibit higher average TE than non-adopters. Banana production technology in the upper Rwizi micro-catchment exhibits decreasing returns to scale, and determinants of TE include education, adoption of SWC and distance to markets. Smallholder farmers in the microcatchment who adopt SWC technologies attain higher productivity.