Adoption of the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), determinants and impact on the technical efficiency of rice production in the middle Senegal river valley

In Senegal, rice consumption remains among the highest in West Africa, while domestic production does not meet demand due to low productivity, resulting in public expenditure on rice imports. In this context, it appears necessary to improve agricultural productivity. This study is part of a dynamic assessment of the technical efficiency (TE) of rice farmers in the Middle Senegal River Valley (MSRV) and the impact of adopting agricultural technology practices, such as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), on TE. The data collected through semi-structured interviews comes from a sample of 239 rice farmers in the MVFS, Senegal. The stochastic frontier analysis method, along with the Cobb-Douglas production function, was employed to evaluate the technical efficiency of rice farmers. The Multinomial Endogenous Switching Regression (MESR) model was employed to evaluate the impact of SRI adoption on technical efficiency, thereby controlling for both observable and unobservable biases. The results reveal that rice farmers have an average efficiency score of 0.53. They also show that household size, level of education, and the amount of fertilizer and seeds used influence technical efficiency. The study also found that the combined adoption of SRI practices positively affects technical efficiency.