EFFECTS OF THE 1992 DROUGHT ON PRODUCTIVITY IN THE SOUTH-AFRICAN HOMELANDS - AN APPLICATION OF THE MALMQUIST INDEX

Programming techniques are used to calculate the efficiency of maize p roduction on farms in the Transvaal homelands of KaNgwane, Lebowa and Venda, in 1991. The productivity losses that resulted from the 1992 dr ought are then calculated subject to the base year by adding a measure of technical progress and constructing multilateral Malmquist indices of total factor productivity (TFP), for the same 174 farms. In Venda, the least advanced region, productivity 61%, compared with 74% in Leb owa and 89% in KaNgwane, is far more commercialised. Three causes of t hese differences can be identified. Firstly, the improved seed and fer tiliser technology that has been introduced by the Farmer Support Prog rammes has increased investment and hence risk. Secondly, the improved maize varieties appear to be less resistant to moisture stress than t raditional seeds and lastly, there were unrecorded regional variations in the severity of the drought.