Vol. 8(29), pp. 3930-3940, 1 August, 2013 DOI: 10.5897/AJAR12.2189 ISSN 1991-637X ©2013 Academic Journals http://www.academicjournals.org/AJAR African Journal of Agricultural Research Full Length Research Paper Source of technical inefficiency of smallholder wheat farmers in selected waterlogged areas of Ethiopia: A translog production function approach Mesay Yami 1 *, Tesafye Solomon 1 , Bedada Begna 1 , Fekadu Fufa 2 , Tolesa Alemu 1 and Dawit Alemu 3 1 Wheat Regional Center of Excellence (WRCoE), Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), P. O. Box 2003, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. 2 The World Vegetable Center Regional Center for Africa, P. O. Box 10, Duluti-Arusha Tanzania. 3 Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), P.O. Box 2003, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Accepted 14 June, 2013 This study was undertaken to investigate the technical inefficiency and factors affecting efficiency of wheat production in water-logged areas of Arsi-robe and Digelu-tijo districts of Arsi zone in southeastern Oromia region, Ethiopia. Both purposive and two-stage sampling techniques were used. Primary data was collected from 157 randomly selected wheat producing farmers through a structured questionnaire. The translog production function analysis revealed that the mean technical efficiency of wheat producers in the study areas in the season were 55%. Given the present state of technology and input level, the result of the study suggests that there is plenty of scope to increase the output of wheat commodity by up to 45%. Education, gender, fragmentation (number of wheat plots), and access to input and output markets have negative coefficients in the inefficiency model. In addition to this, the study indicates scaling up/out of best farmers’ practices in the use of recommended integrated soil, water and nutrient management practices is essential for improving the productivity of commercial wheat varieties grown under water-logged vertisols. Furthermore, sharing the benefits of improved technologies through informal education and field days in demonstration plots could be important possible interventions for obtaining maximum achievable wheat yield under the difficult growing conditions of water-logged vertisols in Ethiopia. Key words: Technical inefficiency, stochastic frontier, production function, wheat farmers, Vertisols. INTRODUCTION With the rapid increase in population and urbanization, the demand for wheat production has been increasing. To meet up growing demand without importing wheat, area under wheat should be increased (Kamruzzaman and Mohammad, 2008). Ethiopia is one of the largest grain producing countries in Africa, although it is still a food insecure country and a net importer of grain, it is the second largest wheat producer in sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa. For the crop year of 2011/2012, from the total land allocated for cereal crops, wheat stands in *Corresponding author. E-mail: mesay44@gmail.com. Tel: +251-911791063.