Implications of climate variability on technical efficiency of rice farmers in the western highlands of Cameroon

Abstract

Smallholder rice farming in the Western Highlands of Cameroon (WHC) is fundamentally threatened by escalating climate variability, including rising temperatures and altered precipitation patterns, which correlates with a drastic decline in national rice yields from 3 tons per hectare in 2000-2001 to a mere 1.22 tons per hectare in 2021. This predicament is compounded by low rates of technology utilization, preventing farmers from achieving the potential output of 6 tons per hectare and severely compromising their overall production efficiency. The study adopted a quantitative approach using cross-sectional data collected from a sample of 378 smallholder rice farmers across six rice-producing villages in the Ndop and Nun ecological zones of the Western Highlands of Cameroon. The Tobit regression results indicated that climate variability and selected socio-economic factors play differentiated roles in shaping rice production efficiency. Rainfall variability and high winds or storms showed no statistically significant effects across both model specifications, suggesting limited influence on efficiency, while temperature variability consistently exhibited a negative and highly significant impact, highlighting it as the most critical climatic constraint to rice production efficiency. Farmer experience displayed a non-linear pattern, with efficiency decreasing among those with 5–10 years of experience but increasing significantly for farmers with 16–20 years and 21 years or more, implying that long-term experience enhances productive efficiency. Educational attainment matters only at higher levels, as university education is positively associated with efficiency, whereas secondary and high school education were insignificant. Institutional factors further contribute, with farm association membership slightly improving efficiency, while farm training is associated with a small but significant reduction, possibly reflecting adjustment or relevance issues. Extension services and technology utilization did not show significant effects. The most pressing recommendation is to counteract the highly significant negative impact of temperature variability, for which current technology is not mediating. Given the failure of current technology to mitigate temperature stress, research and development efforts must be urgently channelled toward breeding and disseminating novel, heat-tolerant Improved Rice Varieties (IRV) suitable for the Western Highlands.