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A meta-analysis is substantial for integrating the findings of all related studies into one consistent research to establish a knowledge bank of a common issue. Although several studies have examined the impact of the individual aspect of human capital on farmers’ technical efficiency, the composite impact was not synthesized. Therefore, our analysis examines the key determinants driving systematic variations in technical efficiency estimates from 268 food-crop farming studies published recently in peer-reviewed journals. Our results have supported our hypothesis that human capital increases farming efficiency. The studies’ location indicates the importance of farmer beliefs, trust in their institutions and land accumulation to increase food-crop farmer technical efficiency. Our findings contribute to the applied agricultural economics literature by theoretically systematizing literature on human capital in accordance with social and natural capitals in agricultural productivity and empirically validating the technical efficiency in food-crop farming studies toward developing agricultural sustainability in harmony with our biosphere.