Emiliana Silva

Efficiency Measures in the Agricultural Sector: With Applications

Part I Efficiency Measures and Methods 1 Efficiency Measures in the Agricultural Sector: The Beginning Emiliana Silva, Armando Mendes and Jorge Santos 2 Review of Frontier Models and Efficiency Analysis: A Parametric Approach Ana Sampaio 3 Introduction to Data Envelopment Analysis Jorge Santos, Elsa Rosario Negas and Luis Cavique Santos 4 Superefficiency and Multiplier Adjustment in Data Envelopment Analysis Jorge Santos, Luis Cavique Santos, Armando Mendes Part II Farm Efficiency Applications 5 An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in Azores Dairy Farms Emiliana Silva, Amilcar Arzubi and Julio Berbel 6 Animal Grazing System Efficiency Emiliana Silva, Carlos Santos and Armando Mendes 7 Technical Efficiency of the Spanish Dairy Processing Industry: Do Size and Exporting Matter? Magdalena Kapelko and Alfons Oude Lansink 8 Inefficiency in Animal Production - A Parametric Approach Emiliana Silva and Fatima Venancio 9 Azorean Agriculture Efficiency by PAR Armando B Mendes, Veska Noncheva and Emiliana Silva 10 Sustainable Tourism and Agriculture Multifunctionality by PAR: A Variable Selection Approach Armando Mendes, Veska Noncheva and Emiliana Silva 11 The Importance of Subsidies in Azorean Dairy Farms Efficiency Emiliana Silva and Eusebio Marote 12 Multi-Ouput Technical Efficiency in the Olive Oil Industry and its Relation to the Form of Business Organisation Rafaela Dios-Palomares, Jose M. Martinez-Paz and Angel Prieto 13 Efficiency Assessment: Final Remarks Jorge Santos, Emiliana Silva and Armando Mendes Index

An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in Azores Dairy Farms

This research measures the Azores dairy farms’ technical efficiency by applying a non-parametric efficiency analysis to a panel data of 122 dairy farms from the Azores, Portugal, for 1996. The analysis used DEA with constant and variable returns to scale models, with an input-oriented model approach. Two outputs (milk production and subsidies) and three inputs (agricultural area, number of dairy cows and variable and fixed cost) were considered relevant. The results suggest that the average technical efficiency is very low (66.4%) compared with published research data, and only a few (7%) dairy farms were found to be efficient.

The Importance of Subsidies in Azorean Dairy Farms’ Efficiency

The purpose of this chapter is to analyze the importance of subsidies in the Azorean dairy farms efficiency from 1997 to 1999. The technical and economic variables of 82 dairy farms of the FADN (Farm Accountancy Data Network) were analyzed over the period of 3 years. The DEA (data envelopment analysis) was the approach used to calculate the efficiency. The software used was the DEAP (Data Envelopment Analysis Program).

Approaches for Sustainable Farming Systems Assessment

Evaluating sustainable development is, at present, an essential prerequisite for promoting sustainable agriculture. The approaches for building sustainable farming systems presented in the next chapters of this book use various methods and procedures to assess the sustainability of farming systems. In that sense, this chapter presents some useful elements regarding those initiatives: Arbre de l’Exploitation Agricole Durable (ARBRE), Framework for the Evaluation of Sustainable Land Management (FESLM), Indicateur de Durabilite des Exploitacions Agricoles (IDEA), Indicator of Sustainable Agricultural Practice (ISAP), Multiscale Methodological Framework (MMF), diagnostic de durabilite du Reseau de l’Agriculture Durable (RAD), Response-Inducing Sustainability Evaluation (RISE), Sustainability Assessment of the Farming and the Environment (SAFE), and the Sustainability Solution Space for Decision Making (SSP) method.

Animal Grazing System Efficiency

This chapter proposes to estimate the technical efficiency in agricultural grazing systems (dairy, beef and mixed) in Azores, in the year 2002. This research used 184 agricultural farms of FADN – Farm Accountancy Data Network. DEA, a non-parametric methodology, was used to estimate efficiency by means of DEAP software.

Agricultural and Environmental Policies in the European Union

This chapter intends to display the environmental considerations in the evolution of agricultural policies of the European Union. In the initial part, it is stated that the agricultural policies are changing. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Union appears as the result of solving the problem for the food decrease production after the Second World War. Nowadays, the CAP primary principles and objectives are changing according to the globalisation and the European environmental concerns. CAP has adjusted to a new reality – the sustainability of the agricultural production. As consequence, the CAP has evolved significantly since 1950 and developed important measures. The common market organisation and other policies including environmental concerns pointed in the MacSharry Reform, the check-health and in the agri-environmental measures appeared as an alternative of the old CAP. The future CAP will have also environmental objectives. CAP will fight against climate changes, supporting employment and growth; promoting the environmental protection and rural development plans and food security; and avoiding global hunger and poverty.

Efficiency Measures in the Agricultural Sector: The Beginning

The agricultural productivity is often based on non-parametric models (DEA), or stochastic models (SFA). In this initial article, the editors start by pointing that the models (DEA and SFA) allow estimating the efficiency of the production frontier and their structural forms. Then, it is presented, in general terms, the differences between DEA and SFA models: DEA model involves the use of technical linear programming to construct a non-parametric piecewise surface, and SFA models comprise econometric models with a random variable, or an error term, including two components: one to account for random effects and another to take care of the technical inefficiency effects. Finally, it shows a comparison between the two approaches (SFA and DEA) and the advantages and disadvantages of their utilizations.

Efeitos das ajudas monetárias na viabilidade económica de explorações leiteiras micaelenses

Milk production in the Azores contributes with 30% of national production. With the end of milk quotas and Community support to the production, farmers face risks and uncertainties that influence their decisions on the quantity of milk to produce and respective price to practice. Focusing on the economic performance of milk producers of Sao Miguel, this work aims to categorize the economic viability of their dairy farms after the elimination of all or part of the Community and regional subsidies, and incorporated the remuneration to family labor. The results indicate that only a small number of farms does not have economic and competitive viability and all of them are viable in financial terms.

The Objectives and Priorities for the Azorean Dairy Farmers’ Decisions

The single objective—profit maximization—has been the classical and neoclassic model for farmer’s decision making. Nowadays, it is recognized that other and conflictual objectives are important concerns to the process, making the multi-criteria methodologies more suitable to the agricultural reality. This chapter aims to identify and find the objectives and priorities of the Azorean dairy farmer’s decision making. The proposed methodology is based on multi-criteria models, by simulation of the dairy farmers’ behavior through data of the Farm Accountancy Data Network. This allows to define a surrogate utility function for a dairy farm typology, regarding the different grazing systems. Five main objectives were previously considered: profit maximization, risk minimization, labor seasonality minimization, leisure maximization, and also deviations to the goal of total labor minimization. The results show that in any group of Azorean dairy farms, the decision making process seems to be influenced by three conflictual objectives: profit maximization, labor seasonality, and risk minimization. Also, the farms’ objectives depend on the intensity of grazing systems and by other socioeconomic factors. That is, farmers’ behavior is not always explained by profit (exception in the low intensity grazing systems), which is unusual under the traditional paradigm. Some explanations may be appointed for this situation and one is related to the dairy farms income that can be enough to maintain the farm and family income. If the economic objectives are satisfied, then the farmers can have other priorities.

Methodologies for Building Sustainable Farming Systems: The Main Critical Points and Questions

Sustainability is a dynamic concept, seeking to achieve a balance in space and time, of the environmental, economic and social dimensions. In this context, farming systems are faced with a double (and often contradictory) challenge to be successful: socio-economic performance has to be maximised while environment and natural resources needs to be protected. When choosing the best alternative, the method of evaluation plays a key role. This chapter synthesises the approaches exposed in the book for building sustainable systems in three classes and identify the main critical points of them as a whole. The chapter ends also with the identification of the main questions derived of the universe of used approaches that can be used in future reflections and discussions regarding the studied theme.