162
E. Iwasaki and K. Kashiwagi
Keywords Crop diversification · Household survey · Data envelopment analysis ·
Technical efficiency · Farmer · Egypt
1 Introduction
Although agriculture is less commonly practiced in the villages in Dakhla Oasis,
it still plays an important role in the household economy like in the villages along
the Nile River. However, the farmers in Dakhla Oasis differ from those in the Nile
River in that they depend on groundwater, which is discharged from the wells that
are shared between farmers. The water quantity is fixed and distributed by water
rotation. Therefore, the farmers must search for diverse strategies to optimize their
production.
In this chapter, we focus on one of the villages in Dakhla Oasis, Rashda village,
to investigate the efficiency of cultivation based on the household survey data. The
household survey in Rashda village was conducted as part of the rural household
surveys in 19 villages conducted since 2005 by the joint research project between
Hitotsubashi University and Central Agency of Public Mobilization and Statistics
(CAPMAS). In Rashda village, a household survey was conducted in 2009 among
715 households living in the village.
1 Among these households, 41% were cultivating
land at the time of the survey. The following study in this chapter is based on the
data from these samples of farm households.
The efficiency of agricultural households in Rashda is investigated to identify
the determinant factors to improve efficiency. We use these panel data to estimate
farm-level technical and scale efficiency using the data envelopment analysis (DEA)
approach to identify the factors determining the efficiency level.
The remainder of the chapter is organized as follows. After reviewing the farming
practices in the study village in Sects. 2 and 3 explains the model used in our analysis.
Data collection for estimation is presented in Sect. 3.2. In Sect. 4, we present the
empirical results and discussions, while Sect. 5 concludes the chapter.
2 Diversification of Farming Practices in Rashda Village
2.1 Crops in Dakhla Oasis
The agricultural season is divided into two seasons. The first is the winter season from
November to April–May. The second is the summer season from May to October.
Like other villages in Dakhla Oasis, the most common crops in Rashda are wheat and
1 Fieldwork in Rashda was conducted at the end of 2009 to collect data using the questionnaire from
600 households living in the village. Additional households were sampled in the beginning of 2010
to collect data from the farmers in Irrigation District No. 3 in Rashda where intensive fieldwork has
been conducted up to that time.
E. Iwasaki and K. Kashiwagi
Keywords Crop diversification · Household survey · Data envelopment analysis ·
Technical efficiency · Farmer · Egypt
1 Introduction
Although agriculture is less commonly practiced in the villages in Dakhla Oasis,
it still plays an important role in the household economy like in the villages along
the Nile River. However, the farmers in Dakhla Oasis differ from those in the Nile
River in that they depend on groundwater, which is discharged from the wells that
are shared between farmers. The water quantity is fixed and distributed by water
rotation. Therefore, the farmers must search for diverse strategies to optimize their
production.
In this chapter, we focus on one of the villages in Dakhla Oasis, Rashda village,
to investigate the efficiency of cultivation based on the household survey data. The
household survey in Rashda village was conducted as part of the rural household
surveys in 19 villages conducted since 2005 by the joint research project between
Hitotsubashi University and Central Agency of Public Mobilization and Statistics
(CAPMAS). In Rashda village, a household survey was conducted in 2009 among
715 households living in the village.
1 Among these households, 41% were cultivating
land at the time of the survey. The following study in this chapter is based on the
data from these samples of farm households.
The efficiency of agricultural households in Rashda is investigated to identify
the determinant factors to improve efficiency. We use these panel data to estimate
farm-level technical and scale efficiency using the data envelopment analysis (DEA)
approach to identify the factors determining the efficiency level.
The remainder of the chapter is organized as follows. After reviewing the farming
practices in the study village in Sects. 2 and 3 explains the model used in our analysis.
Data collection for estimation is presented in Sect. 3.2. In Sect. 4, we present the
empirical results and discussions, while Sect. 5 concludes the chapter.
2 Diversification of Farming Practices in Rashda Village
2.1 Crops in Dakhla Oasis
The agricultural season is divided into two seasons. The first is the winter season from
November to April–May. The second is the summer season from May to October.
Like other villages in Dakhla Oasis, the most common crops in Rashda are wheat and
1 Fieldwork in Rashda was conducted at the end of 2009 to collect data using the questionnaire from
600 households living in the village. Additional households were sampled in the beginning of 2010
to collect data from the farmers in Irrigation District No. 3 in Rashda where intensive fieldwork has
been conducted up to that time.