Technical efficiency, environmental efficiency and economic losses of rainfed wheat production in Ahar county

Therefore, the efficient use of production resources in the process of sustainable development is of considerable importance. Thus, this study was conducted to evaluate the technical efficiency, environmental efficiency and the factors affecting them, as well as to measure the economic loss of using detrimental inputs in rainfed wheat production in Ahar county.

In this study, pesticide and fertilizer inputs were considered as environmentally detrimental inputs in rainfed wheat production, and technical and environmental efficiency were estimated separately. Therefore, it was estimated from a stochastic frontier Translog function using data related to 217 rainfed wheat farmers in Ahar county in the crop year of 2020-2022 to evaluate the technical efficiency and environmental efficiency of production.

Based on the results of inputs of tractor, seeds and manure and detrimental factors of pesticides and fertilizers had a significant effect on wheat production. The results of the technical and environmental efficiency showed that the quantity of environmental efficiency was lower than technical efficiency. With the increase in the use of detrimental inputs, fertilizer and pesticides, the production of environmental efficiency decreases. Based on the average technical efficiency of 66/06 and environmental efficiency of 49/36%, it is possible to increase both efficiency. In other words, by destroying inefficiency, farmers can increase their production by 34% with the same inputs.

Suggestion: 

According to the results, the amount of land, family members with high education and pest damage were factors affecting the efficiency, therefore benefiting from the agriculture science and knowledge and timely dealing with pest damage can improve the efficiency. Considering that the use of pesticides and fertilizers while Pollution the product leaves significant environmental damage, therefore, in order to make the product production process as economical as possible, instead of promoting alternative methods, chemical control, biological and integrated pest control should be carried out.