Determinants of Technical Efficiency of the Dairy Farmers in Ada’a District of Oromia State, Ethiopia

The study was conducted to indicate the determinants of technical efficiency of the dairy farmers in Ada’a district of Oromia state, Ethiopia. The study was arranged in four purposively selected peasant associations of the peri-urban and four kebeles of the urban dairy production sub-systems from which thirty dairy farmers were selected randomly. A total of two hundred forty respondents were personally interviewed using structured questionnaires to know the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents. The stochastic frontier production function of the Cobb-Douglas model was used to estimate the technical efficiency of milk production. The study revealed that mass media exposure of the dairy farmers, training on dairy farming, dry fodder and concentrate feeds were the significant determinants of technical efficiency of milk production in the study area. Organizational participation of the farmers, education level, labor and experience of the farmers in dairy farming had also positive effect on the technical efficiency of milk production. The results obtained with this study suggest that there is a need to strengthening the existing extension services to address the determinants of technical efficiency of the dairy farmers to bring about significant increase in milk production and a balance in demand and supply of milk production in the study area.