Measuring the efficiency of industrial dairy cattle breeding farms using data envelopment analysis: A Case study in southern Tehran province, Iran

Subject Areas : Agricultural Economics Research

S. H. Amini ¹ , A. R. Yazdani ² , A. H. Chizari ³ , P. A. Borujeni ⁴

1 - دانشجوی کارشناسی ارشد مدیریت دامپروری
2 - استادیار دانشکده علوم دامی
3 - استادیار گروه اقتصاد کشاورزی دانشکده کشاورزی و علوم طبیعی دانشگاه تهران
4 - دانشجوی دکترای اقتصاد کشاورزی دانشگاه تربیت مدرس

Received: 2015-12-17 Accepted : 2015-12-17 Published : 2012-03-20

Keywords: Data Envelopment Analysis, Technical efficiency, dairy cattle farms, economic efficiency,

Abstract :

Recognition and measurements of technical and economic indicators is in the initial steps for rational decision-making and planning for the firms producing. Therefore according to the role of milk production and dairy cattle breeding industry in food security and also the role of Tehran province in animal husbandry sector, technical, allocative, economic and scale efficiency of dairy cattle farms in Pakdasht and Rey counties in southern of Tehran province has been investigated. For this purpose, efficiency of industrial dairy cattle breeding farms was evaluated using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Data and information for this research were collected by studying documents, observation and interview procedures. Results calculated efficiency, assumption variable returns to scale and based on input minimization, showed that half of the producers were technically efficient. Although about 51 percent of producers are technically full efficient but allocative and economic efficiency levels, they are not in appropriate status. Although the average level of technical efficiency was 0.93, but the average levels of allocative and economic efficiency were 0.45 and 0.42 respectively. Results showed that, about 40 percent of producers are scale full efficient. Assessing returns to scale results showed that 37 producers had increasing, 2 producers had decreasing and 26 producers had constant returns to scale. Inefficient producers have to decrease consumption of alfalfa, corn silage, concentrate, medicine and health care costs.  

References:

1. 1. Ceyhan, V. and Hazneci. K. 2010. Economic efficiency of

cattle-fattening farms in Amasya province, Turkey. Journal of

Animal and veterinary advances, 9(1): 60-69.

2. 2. Dagistan, E., Koc, B., Gul, M., Parlakay, O. and Goksel, A.

2009. Identifying technical efficiency of dairy cattle management

in rural areas through a non-parametric method: A case study for

the east Mediterranean in turkey. Journal of Animal & Veterinary

advances, 8 (5): 863-867.

3. 3. Dashti, Gh. 2008. Evaluating increasing productivity

production factors of industrial cow breeding farms in Iran.

Proceeding of the Third Iranian congress on animal science. 16-

17 October 2008: Ferdowsi university of Mashhad, pp 4377-

4379. (in persian)

4. 4. Emami Meibodi, A. 2005. Efficiency and productivity

measurement (in theory and practice). (2nd ed.).Institute for trade

studies and research. (in persian)

5. 5. Farrell, M. J. 1957. The measurement of productive efficiency,

Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A, CXX, Part 3,

120 (3): 253-281.

6. 6. Food and Agriculture Organization. 2010. FAO statistical

yearbook 2010/ agricultural production/ Production of milk and

eggs. Retrieved 5 April 2011. www. Fao. Org.

7. 7. Hemati, M; Yousefi, R. and Ghorbani. A. 2008. Research

optimal level Fixed and Variable capital in dairy cattle breeding

farms. The first national conference on livestock & poultry

industrial of Golestan province. 23- 25 december 2008. Gorgan

university agricultural sciences & natural resources. 1139- 1144.

(in persian)

8. 8. Kompas, T. and Che, T. N. 2004. Production and technical

efficiency on australian dairy farms. International and

Development Economics, 4 (1): 57-77.

9. 9. Mehregan, M. 2007. Quantitative models for evaluating

organizations- data envelopment analysis (DEA). Institute

publication university of Tehran. (in persian)

10. 10. Ministry of jihad–e-agriculture. 2008- 2009. Latter statistic

agriculture 2008- 2009. Retrieved march, 2011, from

http://www.maj.ir. (in persian)

11. 11. Munir, A. and Boris, E.U. 1995. An econometric

decomposition of dairy output growth. Journal Agricultural

Economics. 77: 914-921.

12. 12. Reinhard, S., Lovell, C. A. K. and Thijssen, G. 1999.

Econometric estimation of technical and environmental

efficiency: An application to dutch farms, Amer. Journal

Agricultural Economics, 81: 44-60.

13. 13. Stokes, J. R., Tozer, P.R. and Hyde, J. 2007. Identifying

efficient dairy producers using data envelopment analysis. Journal

of Dairy Science, 90 (5): 2555-2562.

14. 14. Uzmay, A., Koyubenbe, N. and Armagan, G. 2009.

Measurement of efficiency using data envelopment analysis

(DEA) and social factors affecting the technical efficiency in

dairy cattle farms within the province of Izmir, Turkey. Journal of

Animal & Veterinary Advances, 8 (6): 1110-1115.

15. 15. Zibaei, M. and Jafarisani. M. 2008. Estimate technical

efficiency and technology gap ratio (TGR) in industrial dairy

cattle breeding farms in Iran. Journal of Science and Technology

of Agriculture and Natural Resources.43 (4): 315- 324. (in

persian).