چکیده:
he purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficiency of date growers in Saravan County using non-parametric methods. The measurement of date farmers’ efficiency and the comparison of their performance to with one another can play an important role in improving their efficiency and productivity. One of the common methods to measure efficiency is data envelopment analysis (DEA). Despite its advantages, this method cannot measure efficiency in a sound way when few decision-making units (DMUs) are available. Therefore, DEA window analysis approach is used to ramp up the number of DMUs in order to make it possible to measure the efficiency of the farmers. This study used DEA window analysis approach to determine date growers’ efficiency in Saravan County over 2012-2016. The results show that the efficiency score of farmers is <1, which indicates their inefficiency so that means efficiency score was found to be 0.93, 0.92 and 0.95 per year in Zaboli, Sib and Suran districts, respectively. Technological change was one of the most influential factors in changing total productivity of agriculture. It is, therefore, suggested that modern technologies be adopted to enhance the efficiency of date production in the studied region.
خلاصه ماشینی:
Efficiency can be defined as the ability of an enterprise to derive the maximum outputs from a given set of inputs assuming a certain technology, or as the capability of an enterprise to produce a certain return with the minimum available inputs; productivity is a concept that reflects the efficiency of enterprises versus one another over a fixed period of time (Mehrabhi Bashrabadi Pakravan, 2009).
Obviously, this is only possible through accurate knowledge of existing capabilities, promotion of the level of efficiency, and the optimal use of production factors such as capital, human resources and technology by the agricultural activities (Sardar Shahraki, 2016).
Table 1: Inputs and Outputs of DEA Window Analysis Model Descriptive Variable Planting area (ha) Recruited labor (person- Inputs hour) Family labor (person- hour) Irrigation frequency Manure (kg) Chemical fertilizer (kg) Age (year) Educational level Experience (year) Family size (person) Non-date growing activities Number of land parcels Inter-tree spacing (m) Attendance in promotional courses Orchard size (number of trees) X1 X2 X3 X4 X5 X6 X7 X8 X9 X10 X11 X12 X13 X14 X15Output Profit Y1 Production yield Y2 4.
Results Discussion To assess date farmers, this study used output-oriented DEA-window analysis assuming variable return to scale.
93 Source: Research findings The results for the efficiency of date growers in Suran District as they were derived from DEA window model are shown in Table 4.
Dynamic DEA approach is a method based on linear programming that calculates the efficiency of a set of DMU’s (the studied date growers) on the basis of input and output indicators, compares them, and distinguishes the efficient and inefficient units.