The Economic Efficiency Trend of Date Orchards in Saravan County

Abstract

The 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.<br />