Determining the efficiency rank of irrigated crops in Iranian agricultural sector

In this study data envelopment analysis models including the basic model, cross efficiency method and mixed integer programming was used to rank 27 irrigated crops in agricultural sector of Iran. The required data were obtained from the Ministry of agricultural jihad for crop year 2011-2012 which includes information about the seed, manure, fertilizers, pesticides, labor and water. On output side the gross margin and yield were used as indicators for profitability and production. The results showed that if the goal is to increase profitability in the agriculture sector, then the cultivation of vegetables, industrial crops, cucurbits, beans, forage plants and cereals are top priority, respectively. But if the aim is to increase the total production, in that case the priority must be forage plants, vegetables, industrial crops, cucurbits, cereals and beans. The common finding of different models was that the crops with high consumption of water, summer soybean than spring soybean and short-grain rice than other types of rice had a better rank.