Efficiency Evaluation of Rice Farmers at South Kamfirouz Region of Marvdasht County: Application of Data Envelopment Analysis Model

This study aims at evaluating the rice farmers’ efficiency at the South kamfirouz region of the Fars Province during the 2010-11 farm years. The data is gathered in a two-stage clustered sampling method. Results of the rice farmers’ efficiencies are produced by using a basic method of data envelopment analysis and then, compared with ones resulted from the supper efficiency envelopment analysis model. In general, the study results show that given a constant return to scale, the average level of the farmers’ technical efficiency is 83.93 percent in the model, standing in a range of 0.43 to 1.0. The same average in a model with variable return to scale is 86.25 and as shown, 29.16 percent of the farning units are found completely efficient. Considering the high average of scale efficiency in the farms and comparing it with the extent of technical management efficiency, it is made clear that the most important cause of farms’ technical inefficiencies is the difference in how to manage the use of inputs; and by applying a proper management of the inputs used in the process of rice production, it could be possible to reduce inefficiencies.