Comparative –analytical comparison of efficiency and performance of smallholding and rural production cooperative utilization systems

The present study is aimed to evaluate the efficiency of Smallholding and Rural Production Cooperative Utilization Systems in crops production. The statistical population of the study is the farmers in the Khusf county of the South Khorasan province. This study is applied in purpose and analytical in nature. It uses the descriptive –analytical method along with a survey approach. The data collection instrument was a researcher made questionnaire and the required data have been collected with a sample of 207 farmers from Smallholding and 38 farmers of Rural Production Cooperatives. The samples were selected using the stratified random sampling method and were analyzed using the data envelopment analysis method. The results indicate the relative superiority of the operating system of the cooperative production versus the Smallholding utilization system based on the technical efficiency measures and scale efficiency. The average technical efficiency and scale in the operating system of cooperative production are respectively 0.98, 0.94 and in the Smallholding utilization system respectively 0.65 and 0.81, respectively. The Mann - Whitney test showed the average yield and net income of crops in rural production cooperatives is more and significantly difference from Smallholding utilization system. Overall, the results indicate the relative superiority of cooperative farming to smallholder system based on technical and economic efficiency criteria.