Technical efficiency of Nigerian agriculture: A meta-regression analysis

The objectives of the study reported in this paper were, first, to uncover how specific characteristics account for systematic variation in the reported average technical efficiency (ATE) estimates across frontier studies, focusing on Nigerian agriculture, and, second, to identify factors driving the efficiency level of the sector over the years. The literature used for meta-regression analysis (MRA) covers the 12-year period from 1999 to 2010. The findings reveal that the hypothesis of publication bias in the selected literature is rejected, while the reported mean ATE from the primary studies denotes a genuine effect. An overall mean ATE of 72% was obtained from all the studies, which implies that there is still room for improvement in the efficiency of Nigerian agriculture. The MRA result shows that the reported ATE increased significantly as input use and year of survey from the primary studies increased. Year of publication from the studies has a significant positive effect on the reported ATE estimates. Furthermore, the authors demonstrate that estimates in studies with a focus on cash crops appear significantly higher than in those focusing on non-cash crops. In addition, efficiency estimates of studies in the south-east and south are significantly lower than those from studies in the south-western part of the country.