Total Factor Productivity Growth in the Philippine Mango and Banana Sub-sectors

The study analyzed the total factor productivity (TFP) growth in the Philippine mango and banana sub-sectors by decomposing TFP change into technological progress, technical efficiency change, and scale efficiency change. The factors affecting production and farm-level technical efficiency of mango growers and banana farmers in the selected research sites were also determined using panel data.

Based on the stochastic production frontier analysis, fertilizer, labor, number of bearing trees, flower inducer cost, chemical cost, and presence of intercrops significantly and positively affected mango output. The significant factors that substantially contributed to banana output included farm area, fertilizer, labor, type of banana cultivars grown, presence of intercrops, soil type, and distance between hills. The type of grower and farming experience showed significant influence on technical inefficiency of sample mango growers in Batangas; whereas the distance between farm and farmer's residence and farming experience were the relevant factors of technical inefficiency of banana farmers in Oriental Mindoro.

The mango sub-sector experienced a negative TFP growth as a result of diminishing technical efficiency and scale efficiency. On the contrary, the banana sub-sector posted a positive TFP growth because of technological progress despite the declining scale efficiency change. The annual TFP change in the mango sub-sector was −3.15 percent, whereas the banana sub-sector's was 0.61 percent