scholarly journals TECHNICAL AND SCALE EFFICIENCIES OF U.S. GRASS-FED BEEF PRODUCTION: WHOLE-FARM AND ENTERPRISE ANALYSES

2018 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 408-428 ◽  
Author(s):  
BERDIKUL QUSHIM ◽  
JEFFREY M. GILLESPIE ◽  
BASU DEB BHANDARI ◽  
GUILLERMO SCAGLIA
Keyword(s):  
Household Income ◽  
Regional Differences ◽  
Returns To Scale ◽  
Distance Functions ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Farm Income ◽  
Optimal Size ◽  
Stochastic Production Frontier ◽  
Production Frontier ◽  
Stochastic Production

AbstractA stochastic production frontier approach was used to estimate input distance functions for U.S. grass-fed beef (GFB) production. Average technical efficiencies of 0.84 and 0.79 were found for U.S. GFB whole farms and enterprises, respectively. Producer education level, experience, farm size, annual net farm income from the GFB operation, annual net household income from off-farm sources, and regional differences are the efficiency drivers of U.S. GFB farms. Increasing returns to scale were found for U.S. GFB farms. Our results suggest that U.S. GFB farms can be scale efficient if the optimal size of the operation is greater than approximately 100 GFB animals.

scholarly journals The Economics and Productivity of Organic versus Conventional U.S. Dairy Farms

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Richard F. Nehring ◽  
Jeffrey Gillespie ◽  
Catherine Greene ◽  
Jonathan Law
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Returns To Scale ◽  
Dairy Farms ◽  
Stochastic Production Frontier ◽  
Production Frontier ◽  
Return On Assets ◽  
Input Distance Function ◽  
Technological Adoption ◽  
Stochastic Production ◽  
Certified Organic

Abstract United States certified organic and conventional dairy farms are compared on the basis of economic, financial, and technological measures using dairy data from the 2016 USDA Agricultural Resource Management Survey. A stochastic production frontier model using an input distance function framework is estimated for U.S. dairy farms to examine technical efficiency and returns to scale (RTS) of farms of both systems and by multiple size categories. Financial and economic measures such as net return on assets and input costs, as well as technological adoption measures are compared by system and size. For both systems, size is the major determinant of competitiveness based on selected measures of productivity and RTS.

scholarly journals Economic Efficiency in Organic Farming: Evidence from Cotton Farms in Viotia, Greece

2001 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vangelis Tzouvelekas ◽  
Christos J. Pantzios ◽  
Christos Fotopoulos
Keyword(s):  
Economic Efficiency ◽  
Allocative Efficiency ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Stochastic Production Frontier ◽  
Production Frontier ◽  
Organic Farms ◽  
Lower Efficiency ◽  
Stochastic Production ◽  
Low Efficiency ◽  
Farm Types

AbstractUsing recent advances in the stochastic production frontier framework, this paper presents an empirical analysis of technical, allocative and economic efficiency of a sample of organic and conventional cotton farms located in Greece. The results suggest that both farm types in the sample examined are technically, allocatively and economically inefficient. Farmer's age and education and farm size are important factors in explaining differentials in efficiency estimates. In comparative terms, organic farms exhibit lower efficiency scores vis-à-vis their conventional counterparts in terms of technical and economic efficiency; regarding allocative efficiency both farm types are almost equally inefficient. Low efficiency scores in both types of farming may be attributed to the respective intervention policies of the last 20 years.

Measuring Technical Efficiency of the Smallholder Crop Farms Using Stochastic Production Frontier Approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 101852912110652
Author(s):  
Mercy Ebere Ndubueze-Ogaraku ◽  
Anil Graves
Keyword(s):  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Niger Delta ◽  
Labour Force ◽  
Nutrition Status ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Positive Sign ◽  
Stochastic Production Frontier ◽  
Production Frontier ◽  
Stochastic Production

Agricultural productivity in Africa is the lowest in the world with many households not being able to feed themselves. In Africa, women play a major role in agriculture sector constituting about 70–80 per cent of the labour force there. Regrettably, their farm productivity is relatively low mainly due to their inefficient use of farm inputs, which has a serious implication for their socio-economic condition as well as health and nutrition status. With this backdrop in mind, the study investigated the technical efficiency (TE) of the female crop farmers in Niger Delta, Nigeria. Stochastic production frontier approach and ANOVA models were applied to analyse the primary data collected on the 216 female farmers randomly selected from 18 communities of the 3 states in the Delta. It has been found that the farm size and the quantity of labour positively influence TE of these farmers. However, farmer’s age shows a negative sign implying a decrease in technical inefficiency in age whereas the years of schooling shows a positive sign implying an increase in inefficiency with schooling thereby a resulting decrease in TE with schooling. Farm efficiency level in Delta and Akwa Ibom States was not significantly different. However, TE level in both Delta and Akwa Ibom States was significantly different from Rivers State. Since, the age of farmers showed positive influence on TE, farmers should form group and organise regular meetings to enable share knowledge and experiences on the efficient use of farm resources in the Niger Delta Region, Nigeria.

scholarly journals Stochastic Production Frontier Models to Explore Constraints on Household Travel Expenditures Considering Household Income Classes

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofyan M. Saleh ◽  
Sugiarto Sugiarto
Keyword(s):  
Household Income ◽  
Life Stage ◽  
Stage Structure ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Stochastic Production Frontier ◽  
Production Frontier ◽  
Household Travel Survey ◽  
Stochastic Production ◽  
Equity Policy ◽  
Household Travel

This paper explores the variation of household travel expenditure frontiers (HTEFs) prior to CC reform in Jakarta. This study incorporates the variation of household income classes into the modeling of HTEFs and investigates the degree to which various determinants influence levels of HTEF. The HTEF is defined as an unseen maximum (capacity) amount of money that a certain income class is willing to dedicate to their travel. A stochastic production frontier is applied to model and explore upper bound household travel expenditure (HTE). Using a comprehensive household travel survey (HTS) in Jakarta in 2004, the observed HTE spending in a month is treated as an exogenous variable. The estimation results obtained using three proposed models, for low, medium and high income classes, show that HTEFs are significantly associated with life stage structure attributes, socio-demographics and life environment factors such as professional activity engagements, which is disclosed to be varied across income classes. Finding further reveals that considerable differences in average of HTEFs across models. This finding calls for the formulation of policies that consider the needs to be addressed for low and medium income groups in order to promote more equity policy thereby leading to more acceptable CC reform.

scholarly journals Rural extension and technical efficiency in the Brazilian agricultural sector

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Carlos Otavio de Freitas ◽  
Felipe de Figueiredo Silva ◽  
Marcelo Jose Braga ◽  
Mateus de Carvalho Reis Neves
Keyword(s):  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Selection Bias ◽  
Agricultural Sector ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Productive Performance ◽  
Stochastic Production Frontier ◽  
Production Frontier ◽  
Entropy Balancing ◽  
Agricultural Census ◽  
Stochastic Production

In this paper, we identify the effect of rural extension on the productive performance of Brazilian agricultural establishments, using technical efficiency as a measure of farm performance. The data used is drawn from the microdata of the 2006 Agricultural Census, accessed directly from the IBGE secrecy room. For this, we use an approach that combines the stochastic production frontier, considering selection bias in the adoption of rural extension (Heckman’s approach) and entropy balancing. We find that rural extension increases efficiency in the use of the productive inputs, with more technical efficiency found among adopting producers than non-adopters. When considering the differences according to farm size, an even greater effect is observed for larger producers. In addition, public rural extension generates higher technical efficiency scores than those obtained by privately-operated establishments.

scholarly journals MEAT GOAT ENTERPRISE EFFICIENCY ANALYSIS IN THE SOUTHEASTERN UNITED STATES

2016 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
BERDIKUL QUSHIM ◽  
JEFFREY GILLESPIE ◽  
KENNETH McMILLIN
Keyword(s):  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Returns To Scale ◽  
Small Sample ◽  
Stochastic Production Frontier ◽  
Production Frontier ◽  
Scope Economies ◽  
Simulation Techniques ◽  
Small Sample Properties ◽  
Stochastic Production ◽  
Meat Goat

AbstractMeat goat enterprise efficiency was estimated using an input distance function (IDF) by applying stochastic production frontier techniques for the southeastern U.S. region. We found increasing returns to scale and scope economies for southeastern U.S. meat goat enterprises. Mean technical efficiency was 0.81. Our results suggest southeastern U.S. meat goat enterprises can be scale efficient if their size of operation is >~60 goats or >40 breeding does. Cost and IDF analyses show input expenses decreased substantially with increasing scale of operations in southeastern U.S. meat goat production. Empirical Monte Carlo simulation techniques show consistency of small-sample properties for the IDF.

scholarly journals Land Tenure and Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Tea Producers: The Case of Ya’An City, China

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 21-34
Author(s):  
Abrham Tezera Gessesse ◽  
Ge He
Keyword(s):  
Technical Efficiency ◽  
Land Tenure ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Farm Size ◽  
Stochastic Production Frontier ◽  
Production Frontier ◽  
Tenure Security ◽  
Tea Production ◽  
Stochastic Production ◽  
The Impact

70 percent of the world and 80 percent of China’s tea production produced by smallholder farmers. However, the tea production per unit area significantly unchanged in the past decades. Understanding factors affecting the technical efficiency of smallholder tea producers is very important to maximize tea production. Aimed at examining the impact of land tenure security and land certification on smallholder tea producers’ technical efficiency, this paper employs the Cobb- Douglas Stochastic Production Frontier (CD-SPF) and Translog Stochastic Production Frontier (TL- SPF) methods for Maximum Likelihood Estimate (MLE) with cross-sectional data collected from 161 randomly selected tea farm plot households in Ya’an city, China. We found that an 1 mu (0.067 ha) increase in the tea farm size will produce a 1.086 tea yield advantage for smallholder tea farmers. We also found that the values of input-output elasticity of land size, household income and labor decrease in turn with 0.144, 0.105 and 0.010 respectively. The results show that farm size is a more crucial input for tea production than income and labor. Moreover, we identify the determinations which enhance the technical efficiency of smallholder tea producers such as land certification, land tenure security age, education, farming experience, total farm size holding, chemical fertilizer, plot steepness and plot distance from home and find that the elimination of land tenure insecurity through land registration and certification makes a clear difference in that. We therefore recommend that tea farmland need to expand and enlarge for better production through comprehensive land consolidation program. We also suggest endorsing the land certificates of all land holders as this will help improve land tenure security, enhance technical efficiency and promote the tea production of smallholder producers.

Does a Diversified Crop Portfolio Make Farmers More Efficient? A Stochastic Production Frontier Analysis of Farm-level Data from Assam, India

2021 ◽  
pp. 097300522199758
Author(s):  
Raju Mandal ◽  
Shrabanti Maity
Keyword(s):  
Positive Impact ◽  
Northeast India ◽  
Government Support ◽  
Stochastic Production Frontier ◽  
Production Frontier ◽  
Frontier Analysis ◽  
Farm Level ◽  
Agriculture Sector ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Stochastic Production

The agriculture sector in India is beset with twin limitations of shrinking cultivable area and absence of major technological breakthroughs in the recent past. In such a situation, a judicious management of the farm in the form of adjustment in a crop portfolio can be quite useful to maximise output and minimise wastage of resources. This article seeks to examine whether a diversified crop portfolio makes the farmers more efficient using farm-level survey data collected from geographically diverse areas of Assam, a state in northeast India. The results of a stochastic production frontier analysis show that adoption of a diversified crop portfolio across crops and seasons makes the farmers more efficient in cultivation by helping them reduce weather-induced damages to crops and reap better returns from farming. This efficiency-enhancing effect of crop diversification is found to be heterogeneous among the regions. However, too much diversification reduces the efficiency of farmers. The results have important implications for Assam where floods cause extensive damage to crops every year. Moreover, access to extension services and government support are found to make the farmers more efficient. On the other hand, fixed-rent form of tenancy reduces efficiency of the farmers while household size has a positive impact on the same.

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