A Copula-Based Meta-Stochastic Frontier Analysis for Comparing Traditional and HDPE Geomembranes Technology in Sea Salt Farming among Farmers in Phetchaburi, Thailand

Roengchai Tansuchat ()
Additional contact information
Roengchai Tansuchat: The Center of Excellence in Econometrics, Faculty of Economics, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai 50200, Thailand

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-23

Abstract: This study analyzed sea salt production and compared the technical efficiency level and the technology gap between traditional technology and High-Density Polyethylene Geomembranes (HDPE GMB) technology in the Phetchaburi province using a copula-based meta-stochastic frontier technique. A total sample size of 250 was chosen, comprising 195 traditional farmers and 55 HDPE GMBs farmers. Several copula families were used to analyze the dependence structure of the two error components and the best-fit copula-based meta-frontier model used Gaussian copulas. Land, labor, and fuel energy are the most significant input variables in the Gaussian copula-based meta-frontier model with a translog production function. Compared to meta-frontier production, the average technological gap between traditional technology production and HDPE GMB technology production was 0.69 and 0.77, respectively, meaning HDPE GMB technology is more technically efficient than traditional technology. The study identified that land, market price, sex, and experience were the contributing technical inefficiency factors for traditional technology production. For HDPE GMB technology production, land, sex, and experience were found to be contributing factors. The performance of HDPE GMB technology in salt farming in the Phetchaburi province suggests that public and private sector agencies should promote greater access to this technology for salt farmers.

Keywords: sea salt production; HDPE geomembranes; technical efficiency; meta-stochastic frontier; copula; technical efficiency determinants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/4/802/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/4/802/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2023:i:4:p:802-:d:1112370

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().