The Influence of Dense Planting System on the Technical Efficiency of Saffron Production and Land Use Sustainability: Empirical Evidence from Gonabad County, Iran

Mohammadreza Ramezani, Arash Dourandish, Tinoush Jamali Jaghdani and Milad Aminizadeh
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Mohammadreza Ramezani: Department of Agricultural Economics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM), Mashhad 9177948978, Iran
Arash Dourandish: Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture & Natural Resources, University of Tehran (UT), Karaj 7787131587, Iran
Tinoush Jamali Jaghdani: Department of Agricultural Markets, The Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), 06120 Halle, Germany
Milad Aminizadeh: Department of Agricultural Economics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM), Mashhad 9177948978, Iran

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-19

Abstract: The cultivation of saffron, which is one of the most expensive agricultural products in the world, is the main source of livelihood and economic wellbeing for the rural communities of Gonabad county in the eastern part of Iran. Nevertheless, farm monitoring in the region has shown that many saffron growers apply a high-density planting system for more profit. This practice results in the loss of land productivity after a six-year production cycle. As a consequence, farmers abandon the cultivated lands and move to plant saffron in available virgin lands. The purpose of this study is to analyse the technical efficiency of saffron farms and its determinants with an emphasis on the role of planting density. A survey was conducted in 2019, and a cross-sectional random sampling technique was used to select 110 saffron growers. We first assessed the technical efficiency of farms using a data envelopment analysis (DEA) model with input orientation. In the next step, efficiency scores were regressed on explanatory variables using OLS and bootstrapped truncated regression to identify efficiency related factors. We find that planting density negatively influenced technical efficiency, suggesting that it is necessary for saffron growers to be educated on the negative impacts of the dense planting system.

Keywords: efficiency; data envelopment analysis (DEA); saffron; corm planting density; Iran; Gonabad county (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: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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