The study examined relative technical efficiency among smallholder farmers who practiced low external input technology [LEIT] and high external input technology [HEIT] agriculture in Imo State, Nigeria. Cross sectional data generated from 160 smallholder farmers randomly selected from 2 out of the 3 agricultural zones in Imo State were used. Results showed that there is a shift in neutral technical efficiency parameter to a higher level for high external input technology farms, implying that this group of farms achieved higher levels of output per unit of each input, and hence a higher technical efficiency than the low external input technology farms. The LEIT and HEIT farms are characterized by factor biased or non neutral production functions. An implementation of effective policy on fertilizer subsidy is therefore recommended in order to urgently reduce the cost of this productivity enhancing input. Current rigidities on credit liberalization should also be reviewed, to enable the farmers have unhindered access to improved planting materials, inorganic fertilizers, agro-chemicals and other high external input technologies, which hitherto had been beyond the reach of the average smallholder farmers in Nigeria.
Low, High, External input, Relative Technical efficiency
