Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development Vol. 1(6), pp. 138-144, December 2012 ISSN 2327-3151 ©2012 Academe Research Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Factor productivity in smallholder pigeonpea production systems: Empirical evidence from Northern Tanzania

Essa C. Mussa¹*, Franklin Simtowe² and Gideon Obare³

¹University of Gondar, Department of Agricultural Economics, Gondar, Ethiopia.

²African Centre for Social Research and Economic Development (ACSRED), Nairobi, Kenya.

³Egerton University, Department of Agricultural Economics and Business Management, Kenya.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: essachanie@gmail.com.

Accepted 17 December, 2012

Abstract

The paper uses panel data originated from two sessions of household surveys: a baseline survey conducted in 2008 and a follow up survey in 2010, in northern Tanzania. Using a flexible transcendental logarithmic (translog) production function, results showed that the productivity of pigeonpea is positively and significantly associated with the size of pigeonpea cultivated land, labor, interaction between plot size and seed quantity, and the interaction of seed use with time. The study also revealed that there was technological progress in pigeonpea production systems over the period of 2008 to 2010. Furthermore, results from elasticity analysis indicated that smallholder pigeonpea producers were experiencing increasing returns to scale, suggesting that output of pigeonpea could respond positively and with higher proportion for a given simultaneous percentage change in quantity of seed, manure and labor. Therefore, support for human capital formation of farmers and increased access to improved pigeonpea seed varieties could be important intervention areas to increase pigeonpea productivity in northern Tanzania. Moreover, farmers should also be encouraged to use more manure, seed and labor so as to increase pigeonpea production without expansion of land use.

Key words: Factor productivity, pigeonpea, translog production function, Tanzania.