Abstract

MARTINEZ, Jose María; TARAZONA-VELASQUEZ, Rubilma; MARTINEZ-PACHON, Eliana  and  RAMOS-ZAMBRANO, Housseman Steven. Potato farming in Southwest Colombia: Types of farmers and their technical efficiency. Cienc. Tecnol. Agropecuaria [online]. 2022, vol.23, n.2, e2236.  Epub Apr 31, 2022. ISSN 0122-8706.  https://doi.org/10.21930/rcta.vol23_num2_art:2236.

Potato is a traditional and economically important crop for farmers in the high mountains of Nariño (Colombia). However, its productivity growth is weakening, injuring farmers’ livelihoods. We hypothesize that an in-depth study of farm typologies and their relationship with productive efficiency could prove helpful in delivering recommendations for sector improvement. With a representative sample of 1,018 farmers, this research used cluster methods to identify representative types of farming and then a stochastic frontier model to build a measure of potato production efficiency. Finally, it analyzed how technical efficiency behaves across the calculated types of farming. Results suggested that four kinds of farming describe potato production in Nariño: micro, small, medium, and large-scale. Most farmers are of the micro (71.8%) and small scale (23.8%), and their conditions are unfavorable in terms of access to technical assistance, credit, and improved production practices. Although these farmers report an average efficiency of 79% and 85%, respectively, there is still an opportunity for improvement. We close with a brief discussion that focuses on suggestions for future policy or research advances around these farmers.

Keywords : econometric analysis; hierarchical cluster; potato production; Solanum toberosum; stochastic frontier model.

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