Analyzing the profit efficiency of cotton production in the west region of Burkina Faso

This study aims mainly to analyze the profit efficiency of cotton production in the western region of Burkina Faso. For this purpose, the primary data for the research was compiled through face-to-face surveys of 80 cotton producers randomly selected from eight selected villages. The socioeconomic characteristics of cotton producing enterprises, the amount of inputs used in production, the income level of the cotton production activity, and the gross profit level were determined within the scope of the research.In the study, technical and economic efficiency measures were derived for a sample of cotton producers in the research area using the parametric stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) technique. The results showed that the average land size of the examined farms was 4.4 hectares, the average household size per farm holding was 8.4 people, and a total of 674 people were employed. The results of the model indicated that factors such as organic fertilizers, in addition to urea and NPK, planting more than one crop in the same field and mechanisation positively affect the profit. The study further showed that factors such as labor costs, spraying costs, seed price, animal care costs and depreciation affect the production costs negatively. In fact, the profit efficiency of the farm holdings ranged between 30.61% and 90.01%, while the mean level of profit efficiency was 78.16%, which suggested an estimated 47% loss in profit due to a combination of both technical and cost inefficiencies. For this reason, it's recommended to use agricultural mechanization, organic fertilizers, and rotation in coton production in order to increase the profit efficiency of cotton producers.