Economic efficiency of 'queen' pineapple farmers in major pineapple producing municipalities of Camarines Norte, Philippines

The study was conducted to find out the socio-economic characteristics of farmers and the factors affecting the pineapple production in the study area. It also aimed to evaluate the technical, allocative, and economic efficiency of 'Queen' pineapple production and the factors affecting the efficiency. The municipalities of Basud, Labo, and San Vicente in Camarines Norte [Philippines] were purposively selected for this study. The Queen pineapple farmers of these municipalities were the chosen respondents. Eighty of them were stratified and randomly selected using the proportional allocation method. Among the 80 selected farmers, 50 were classified as 'small farmers' and 30 were 'large farmers' based on the median size of the cultivated farms. Descriptive statistics were used to describe the socio-economic characteristics of the sample respondents, while cost and return analysis was used to determine the profitability of the pineapple production. Comparison of means (t-test), simple regressions, and stochastic frontier analyses were also performed to determine the mean differences between the two groups of farmers in terms of yield and inputs used, to assess and identify the factors affecting the farm-level technical, allocative, and economic efficiency of the respondents. Results of the t-test analysis revealed that in general, the two groups are significantly different in the output and the level of inputs used by each farmer. Results of stochastic frontier analysis showed that the use of complete fertilizer, ammonium phosphate, and flower inducer (ethrel) had positive significance in the production of Queen pineapples among the small farmers. This group had a mean score of 55.17% in technical efficiency, which means that they were losing 44.83% in the production due to inefficiency factors. For large farmers, complete fertilizer, ammonium phosphate, urea, and powder herbicide had negative significant contribution in the pineapple production. Their technical efficiency had a mean score of 27.27%, which means that they were losing 72.73% in the production. Small Queen pineapple farmers were technically more efficient than large farmers. Moreover, the factors affecting the technical efficiency of the small and large farmers were the farmers' age, and farm size. In terms of allocative efficiency, results showed that the small farmers underutilized all of the farm inputs while over utilized by the large farmers group. The factor affecting the economic efficiency of the small and large farmers group was the actual farm size only.