Investigating environmental and technical efficiency in grape production in Bijar County with input-oriented approach

The purpose of this study is to estimate the environmental and technical efficiency of grape production in Bijar County. In this research, stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) method used to estimate input-oriented technical and environmental efficiency. Chemical fertilizer, pesticides and sulfur inputs were considered as environmentally detrimental inputs for estimating environmental efficiency. data were collected from 170 grape orchards at year 2018. The average technical efficiency (70%), shows that orchards under consideration can increase their efficiency up to 30%. The minimum and maximum technical efficiencies were 26% and 93%, respectively, which indicates a large gap (67%) between the efficiencies. While the average environmental efficiency is 92%, the lowest and highest efficiencies are 49% and 99%, respectively. Based on the results, it is possible to increase environmental efficiency on average by 8%. Due to the high average environmental efficiency of this grape orchards, it is concluded that environmental impacts of detrimental inputs were considered when using fertilizers and pesticides. So, encouraging these grape producers and introducing them to other producers can play a positive role in sustainable development in this county.