Crop Diversification and Its Efficiency …
177
4.2 Discussion
Our empirical results imply that the simple diversification of crop production does not
result in improved efficiency and the intensification of water-using crops, including
rice, alfalfa, and sorghum, has a negative effect on efficiency. However, intensification
of water-saving crops, such as dates, contributes to increased efficiency.
Then why do farmers diversify their crop cultivation despite its low efficiency?
Obviously, the cultivation regulation in the government well districts, as discussed
in Sect. 2, is a determinant factor influencing the farmers’ behavior on crop choice.
However, this is for the government well districts, but not all the farmers are bound
to this regulation. Moreover, the crop decisions in the government well districts
are taken by the farmers’ meeting although under the supervision of the Ministry of
Agriculture, so that the decisions are understood as the farmers’ choices. How can we
understand the farmers’ behavior then? One way is to take Table 10 summaries of the
farmers’ characteristics of those with high and low efficiencies using the efficiency
scores obtained from our empirical analysis.
There are clear efficiency differences between the farmers according to their diversification strategies. In fact, efficient farmers with scores higher than 80% planted
more date trees on an average 29.1% of their cultivated land compared with only
5.3% of the farmers with an efficiency less than 20%. Farmers with very low efficiencies of less than 20% are more inclined to cultivate rice, wheat, and fodder crops
that provide essential food for their households, their cows, and their sheep.
It is noted that most of the farmers with low efficiencies tend to produce crops for
household consumption, which is consistent with our earlier observation in Sect. 2.
Thus, small-scale farmers’ preferences on crop cultivation to grow more rice and
fodder crops, despite their low values and water intensities, could be understood
from the consumption side—that the household consumption perspective is rational
to secure their basic need for food.
5 Summary and Conclusions
This paper investigates the technical and scale efficiency of agricultural households
in Rashda village in Dakhla Oasis to identify the determinant factors to improve
efficiency. It also examines the effect of crop diversification on technical efficiency.
We conducted the survey of agricultural households in Rashda during 2009 in collaboration with CAPMAS to collect micro-data of agricultural households. Using these
panel data of inputs and output, farm-level technical and scale efficiencies are estimated by the DEA approach in the first stage. In a second-stage analysis, the OLS
model was used to estimate the effects of factors associated with efficiency.
Empirical results suggest the average scores of technical efficiencies was 17.5%
under the CRS assumption, whereas it was 20.2% under the VRS assumption. The
estimated efficiency scores of farms in Rashda were generally lower, but they suggest
177
4.2 Discussion
Our empirical results imply that the simple diversification of crop production does not
result in improved efficiency and the intensification of water-using crops, including
rice, alfalfa, and sorghum, has a negative effect on efficiency. However, intensification
of water-saving crops, such as dates, contributes to increased efficiency.
Then why do farmers diversify their crop cultivation despite its low efficiency?
Obviously, the cultivation regulation in the government well districts, as discussed
in Sect. 2, is a determinant factor influencing the farmers’ behavior on crop choice.
However, this is for the government well districts, but not all the farmers are bound
to this regulation. Moreover, the crop decisions in the government well districts
are taken by the farmers’ meeting although under the supervision of the Ministry of
Agriculture, so that the decisions are understood as the farmers’ choices. How can we
understand the farmers’ behavior then? One way is to take Table 10 summaries of the
farmers’ characteristics of those with high and low efficiencies using the efficiency
scores obtained from our empirical analysis.
There are clear efficiency differences between the farmers according to their diversification strategies. In fact, efficient farmers with scores higher than 80% planted
more date trees on an average 29.1% of their cultivated land compared with only
5.3% of the farmers with an efficiency less than 20%. Farmers with very low efficiencies of less than 20% are more inclined to cultivate rice, wheat, and fodder crops
that provide essential food for their households, their cows, and their sheep.
It is noted that most of the farmers with low efficiencies tend to produce crops for
household consumption, which is consistent with our earlier observation in Sect. 2.
Thus, small-scale farmers’ preferences on crop cultivation to grow more rice and
fodder crops, despite their low values and water intensities, could be understood
from the consumption side—that the household consumption perspective is rational
to secure their basic need for food.
5 Summary and Conclusions
This paper investigates the technical and scale efficiency of agricultural households
in Rashda village in Dakhla Oasis to identify the determinant factors to improve
efficiency. It also examines the effect of crop diversification on technical efficiency.
We conducted the survey of agricultural households in Rashda during 2009 in collaboration with CAPMAS to collect micro-data of agricultural households. Using these
panel data of inputs and output, farm-level technical and scale efficiencies are estimated by the DEA approach in the first stage. In a second-stage analysis, the OLS
model was used to estimate the effects of factors associated with efficiency.
Empirical results suggest the average scores of technical efficiencies was 17.5%
under the CRS assumption, whereas it was 20.2% under the VRS assumption. The
estimated efficiency scores of farms in Rashda were generally lower, but they suggest