Efficiency Of Small Farmers' Pineapple Production In Allada In Benin

Pineapple（Ananas comosus）,the third most important tropical fruit in the world after banana and citrus,is a delicious fruit with exceptional juiciness and immense health benefits as well as fine flavour and high nutritive value.Its content makes it a good raw material in confectionery industries for making sweet,fruit drinks and household food additives.A recent study by the ministry has shown that the climate and the condition of the soil in the south of the country are ideal for the production of pineapple and support a good organoleptic quality.Benin produces 400to 450 thousand tons of pineapples a year,which makes the fruit its third most important agricultural produce.Though overseas exports made up only 2%of total production,they accounted for half of the sector's profits and promised a more lucrative future for farmers,the industry and its tens of thousands of employees.Pineapple is one of the most important fruits in BENIN and it had been identified that the country has comparative advantage in its production.However,there is need for empirical studies on the technical efficiency of its production.This paper presents the analysis of technical efficiency of pineapple production in ALLADA,BENIN.the analysis uses stochastic frontier production function and tobit model.Primary data was collected from 150 pineapple farmers using multi stage sampling technique.Results revealed that the coefficients of variables related to quantity of suckers（X₂）,total quantity of labour used（X₃）;quantity of fertilizers（X₄）are statistically significant at 1%while farm size（X₁）statistically significant at 5%implying that these variables were the factors affecting yield of pineapple farmers in ALLADA.The study therefore recommends that policies that would focus on ways of attracting and encouraging the youths who are agile and stronger to embark on pineapple production should be pursued such as the setting up of fruit processing factories or industries in the rural areas.Development of financial subventions to farmers and improve the agricultural management.