Measuring and expounding technical and cost efficiencies of smallholder tomato producers in Northern Ethiopia

While tremendous progress has been achieved in expanding irrigation to improve fruit and vegetable production, the issue of resource use efficiency has received little attention. Tomatoes have economic, nutritional, and health benefits, but their production is very limited for many reasons, including inefficiencies caused by socioeconomic, biophysical, institutional, governance, and meteorological factors. However, there have been very few studies to determine whether tomato producers are technically and economically efficient. Therefore, the study's goal was to assess technical and cost efficiencies, as well as to investigate factors impacting tomato production cost efficiency. Cross sectional data was collected from tomato growers and analysed using Data Envelopment Analysis and Tobit model. The mean technical efficiency was 68 %, revealing 32 % production shortfall and the potential to increase agricultural productivity given present inputs and technologies. The mean cost and scale efficiencies were around 46 % and 37 %, respectively. Farmers operated at high-cost inefficiency compared to their technical and allocative efficiencies. Household size, education, and cash crop planting have all been linked to cost savings. Higher levels of education and larger household sizes are connected with more opportunities for off-farm work, which is likely to reduce on-farm management intensity. The dependency ratio and size of irrigated plots have a detrimental impact on farmer cost efficiency. As the size of irrigated farms grows, farmers become less cost-effective. Education, labor supply, crop types grown, and irrigated farmland all have a significant impact on tomato production cost efficiency. The study suggests that policymakers, development practitioners, and other relevant organizations focus on introducing labour-saving technologies, improving environmental factors, and investing in education and family planning to raise farmer awareness, increase agricultural productivity, and promote cost efficiencies. These can eventually lead to higher food security.