Determining efficiency and its effective factors in dairy farms in Kurdistan province with data envelopment analysis and tobit regression approach

One of the most important economic indicators in the process of agricultural production is efficiency index. Due to the increasing competition and complexity of economic relations between production units, today measuring the efficiency of production, especially in livestock units to create the necessary planning and make optimal decisions in the management process of such units is of great importance. The aim of this study was to evaluate the technical, allocative and economic efficiencies and determine the factors affecting them in industrial farms in Kurdistan province.

The data of this research is related to the year 2019, in which statistics and information were collected through documentary study and face-to-face interviews. In this study, Deap 2.1 and Eviews 9 software were used to analyze the performance and determine the factors affecting them. To design the data envelopment analysis model, the main variables used in the study, including herd size, feed and concentrate, manpower, health, milk production and livestock manure production and the sum of different incomes were determined. The efficiency of industrial farms was evaluated in the framework of technical efficiency with constant return to scale, technical efficiency with variable return to scale, scale efficiency, allocation efficiency and economic efficiency. Performance calculations were performed assuming the minimization of production costs in the form of performance of industrial farms in Kurdistan province and the results were obtained annually. To determine the factors affecting the amount of performance obtained, Tobit regression analysis and parent statistics were used.

The results showed that technical efficiency with constant efficiency compared to the scale is 0.814 and with variable efficiency compared to the scale is 0.943. The scale efficiency of these livestock units was calculated to be 0.859 in which 22 dairy cattle breeding units with incremental returns to scale and 2 units with decreasing returns to scale were reported. The amount of technical efficiency in general was calculated as 0.824, allocation efficiency as 0.818 and economic efficiency as 0.680. In the general evaluation, milk production efficiency in Bijar city had the highest and in Qorveh city the lowest amount among other cities of this province. Decreasing the age of managers and increasing household manpower in technical efficiency as well as decreasing age and increasing fixed and current investments in economic efficiency had a positive and significant effect.

In general, in Kurdistan province, in terms of technical efficiency of 34%, allocation efficiency of 14% and economic efficiency of 24%, dairy cattle breeding units are operating at an efficient level and the rest of the units are inefficient. Given the conditions of farms and the current state of the Iranian economy in the short term, it is better for livestock units to reduce their herd size by selling older dairy cattle and native heifers and optimally reviewing the supply and allocation of production inputs. Do the necessary.