Efficiency of Vegetables Produced in Glasshouses: The Impact of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) in Land Management Decision Making

Thomas Bournaris, George Vlontzos and Christina Moulogianni
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Thomas Bournaris: Department of Agricultural Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
George Vlontzos: Department of Agriculture, Crop Production and Rural Development, University of Thessaly, 38446 Volos, Greece
Christina Moulogianni: Department of Agricultural Economics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece

Land, 2019, vol. 8, issue 1, 1-11

Abstract: Glasshouse farming is one of the most intensive types of production of agricultural products. Via this process, consumers have the ability to consume mainly off-season vegetables and farmers are able to reduce operational risks, due to their ability to control micro-climate conditions. This type of farming is quite competitive worldwide, this being the main reason for formulating and implementing assessment models measuring operational performance. The methodology used in this study is Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), which has wide acceptance in agriculture, among other sectors of the economy. The production protocols of four different vegetables—cucumber, eggplant, pepper, and tomato—were evaluated. Acreage (m 2 ), crop protection costs (€), fertilizers (€), labor (Hr/year), energy (€), and other costs (€) were used as inputs. The turnover of every production unit (€) was used as the output. Ninety-eight agricultural holdings participated in this survey. The dataset was obtained by face-to-face interviews. The main findings verify the existence of significant relative deficiencies (including a mean efficiency score of 0.87) as regards inputs usage, as well as considerably different efficiency scores among the different cultivations. The most efficient of these was the eggplant production protocol and the least efficient was that used for the tomato. The implementation of DEA verified its utility, providing incentives for continuing to use this methodology for improving land management decision making.

Keywords: input optimization; efficiency; intensive farming; glasshouse; DEA (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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