Technical Efficiency of Traditional Livestock Husbandry and its Determinants in Mountain Rangelands of Northern Iran

Journal of Rangeland Science

مقالات آماده انتشار، پذیرفته شده، انتشار آنلاین از تاریخ 11 دی 1402

نوع مقاله: Research and Full Length Article

نویسندگان

Shafagh Rastgar^{* 1}؛ Hossein Ahamdi Gatab²؛ Seyed Mojtaba Mojaverian³؛ Ghodratollah Heydari⁴

¹Assistant Professor, Natural Resources College, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran

²Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural resources University

³Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran

⁴Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University

چکیده

Measurement of Technical Efficiency (TE) provides useful information on the competitiveness of Rangeland Unit (RU) and potential to improve productivity, with the existing resources. So, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the technical efficiency of Traditional Livestock Husbandry (TLH) and determine the main factors influencing it via management variables of Range Management Plans (RMP) and demographic variables of ranchers (age, education, herd size) in the semi-arid rangelands of Northern Iran. To do this, the study employs a Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) via parametric stochastic frontier analysis. This technique creates efficiency indices by comparing the performance of traditional livestock husbandry. The random sampling method was used to collect data via a survey questionnaire from 82 semi-nomad ranchers in 2018-2019. Results show that the average value of scale efficiency (SE) was 0.78; technical efficiency (TE) at Constant Returns to Scale (TECRS) and Variable Returns to Scale (TEVRS) level were calculated 0.54 and 0.69, respectively. Also, implementing RMP in some rangeland units could improve scale efficiency level by 0.81. Over 62.2% of animal units show increasing returns to scale and about a quarter to a fifth of the animal units were in the area of risk-reducing returns which indicates the need to reduce the scale to improve efficiency. Therefore; a significant part of technical efficiency is related to the SE and in the current research, RMP in RUs improved the SE up to 81%. This ratio in RMP-in was less than RMP-out . About 10% of animal units in implementing RMPs allocated to perfectly efficient and so-called are on the boundary function. The Tobit regression results indicated that education, experience, livestock breed and implantation of RMP significantly affected the efficiency. Policies are thus needed to improve the mentioned above factors to sustain the efficiency of RUs that diversify the rancher's economy.

کلیدواژه‌ها

Data envelopment analysis؛ Range management plans؛ Technical efficiency؛ Tobit regression؛ Traditional livestock husbandry