ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Eco-Efficiency in Farm Management
for Sustainable Agriculture: a Two-Stage Data
Envelopment Analysis in Wheat Production
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Çukurova University, Turkey
Submission date: 2021-03-16
Acceptance date: 2021-05-08
Online publication date: 2021-09-29
Publication date: 2021-12-02
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2021;30(6):5549-5557
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ABSTRACT
At present, the sensitivity of economic and ecological balances makes resource use more important.
In this context, efficiency is at the focal point in the operations of sectors such as agriculture, where
the use of unsustainable inputs is intense and the relative added value is low. A two-stage approach
is utilized to assess and set a benchmark for the wheat farmers in Adana, Turkey. The first stage
analyses wheat farms and uses Data Envelopment Research (DEA) analysis to explore possible areas
of performance improvements for inefficiency. The efficiency scores obtained were reduced over
a collection of contextual variables in the second stage to classify the possible sources of inefficiency
using the Tobit regression model. Required farm management data were collected from 111 wheat
farms via face-to-face interviews in March-July 2019. According to the DEA, results mean TE scores
are found as 0.883 which means that the sampled wheat farmers could reach full technical efficiency
through reducing their input usage by 11.7% with the current level of technology to produce the same
output levels. The results of the Tobit regression model indicate that factors such as farmland ownership,
total farm area, and procuring inputs in cash positively influenced the TE, whereas being experienced in
wheat farming had a negative effect.