Technical efficiency of farmers in Burkina Faso: do institutional mechanisms for managing water reservoirs matter?

Abstract

This article aims to examine the influence of institutional factors on the technical efficiency of vegetable and horticultural farms around water reservoirs in Burkina Faso. Methodologically, the study combines Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) with the bootstrap method to robustly estimate technical efficiency scores, alongside a censored Tobit model to identify the determinants of inefficiency. The results reveal significant technical inefficiency, with an average efficiency of 41% under the assumption of constant returns to scale and 86% under variable returns to scale, while scale efficiency is relatively low (0.46), indicating size-related inefficiencies. The analysis shows that public management of the reservoirs significantly increases technical inefficiency (at the 1% significance level), with 71.2% of producers considering public intervention ineffective. In contrast, membership in producer groups and compliance with usage rules reduce inefficiency and promote the adoption of good agricultural practices. Other factors identified as increasing inefficiency include usage conflicts, anthropogenic pressure, the distance between home and plots, and plot location, while the producer’s gender and education level are associated with improved technical efficiency. These findings suggest that transitioning to community-based management of water reservoirs, combined with capacity-building for producers and collaborative strategies for production and marketing, could enhance the productivity and sustainability of vegetable and horticultural farms.