Efficiency Measures in the Agricultural Sector

Adding to our toolkit for improving agricultural efficiency, this volume shows how to deploy techniques such as data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier analysis in crop production, opening up a fruitful new arena that could profit from these methods.

The editors draw on a 3-year project that analyzed a Portuguese area in detail, comparing this study with papers from other regions. Applications include the estimation of technical efficiency in agricultural grazing systems (dairy, beef and mixed) and specifically for dairy farms. The conclusions indicate that it is now necessary to help small dairy farms in order to make them more efficient. These results can be compared with the technical efficiency of a sample of Spanish dairy processing firms presented by Magdalena Kapelko and co-authors.

Offers a thorough introduction to efficiency modeling in agriculture Incorporates both Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) Provides a lucid, non-specialist's approach to sophisticated modeling for agricultural efficiency

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Efficiency Measures in the Agricultural Sector opens with detailed descriptions of measurement techniques such as Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA), which are often used to support models in analysis of agricultural productivity, based on mathematical programming (non-parametric, non-stochastic) models or econometric (stochastic, parametric) models.

Among the factors studied using these techniques are the abundance of subsidies, strong competition between regions worldwide and the need for efficient production systems. In some countries like Portugal, this sector is being revitalized in face of the need for reducing imports.

The editors draw on a 3-year project that analyzed a Portuguese area in detail, comparing this study with papers from other regions. Applications include the estimation of technical efficiency in agricultural grazing systems (dairy, beef and mixed) and specifically for dairy farms. The conclusions indicatethat it is now necessary to help small dairy farms in order to make them more efficient. These results can be compared with the technical efficiency of a sample of Spanish dairy processing firms presented by Magdalena Kapelko and co-authors.

Contenu
Contents:.- Part I Efficiency Measures and Methods.- 1 Efficiency Measures in the Agricultural Sector: The Beginning.- 2 Review of Frontier Models and Efficiency Analysis: A Parametric Approach.- 3 Introduction to Data Envelopment Analysis.- 4 Superefficiency and Multiplier Adjustment in Data Envelopment Analysis.- Part II Farm Efficiency.- 5 An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in Azores Dairy Farms.- 6 Animal Grazing System Efficiency.- 7 Technical Efficiency of the Spanish Dairy Processing Industry: Do Size and Exporting Matter?.- 8 Inefficiency in Animal Production A Parametric Approach.- 9 Azorean Agriculture Efficiency by PAR.- 10 Sustainable Tourism and Agriculture Multifunctionality by PAR: A Variable Selection Approach.- 11 The Importance of Subsidies in Azorean Dairy Farms Efficiency.- 12 Multi-Ouput Technical Efficiency in the Olive Oil Industry and its Relation to the Form of Business Organisation.- 13 Efficiency Assessment: Final Remarks.- Index.