Relationship Between the Efficiency and Agricultural Sustainability in Potato Farms of Kaboudarahang County

Today, sustainability of agricultural operations is inevitable in the process of sustainable development. The altogether improvement of Stability and efficiency can increase economic growth in agriculture. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between the efficiency and sustainability of potato cultivation in Kaboudarahang. For this purpose, the data from 154 potato cultivators were gathered by completing the questionnaire in the 2015-2016 crop seasons. To determine the sustainability, the Senanayake’s approach and to determine the efficiency of the method, a Stochastic Frontier production function was used. Estimates of technical efficiency of farmers also indicate that the cultivation fields of this product range from 53 to 96 percent of the technical efficiency and their average efficiency is 84 percent. Also, the results from the Senanayake approach indicate that 2.6% of the farms are under the class of completely unstable, 9.8% of the farms are in the unstable class, 72.1% in the middle class, 13.6% in the sustainable class, and 9.1% in a very stable class. Finally, the results of the regression model showed that there is a significant relationship between agricultural sustainability and efficiency. Meanwhile, variables like the farmer's age, literacy level, number of attendances in the educational classes, the type of ownership, and technical efficiency had a positive effect and the main occupation of the cultivator had a negative effect on agricultural sustainability. Therefore, since efficiency has a positive impact on the sustainability of agriculture, adopting measures such as paying attention to ownership, education, participation in educational classes, and experience can strengthen the sustainability of the production system.