Drivers of Farm Efficiency in Turkey: A Stochastic Frontier Analysis

This paper analyzes the efficiency structure of Turkish agriculture in farm household level by using various models of stochastic frontier analysis. A household level survey conducted in 2002 and 2004 is used in the analysis. Firstly, an efficient production frontier is estimated by a panel data model. By using these estimates, relative importance of inputs and their interaction with various farm characteristics are inspected. The parameters of production frontier show that agricultural production is crucially dependent on land and there is an excessive employment of labor. Secondly, the efficiency scores are estimated at farm household level. The results are reported according to NUTS-I regional classification and many other farm specific characteristics. The western parts of the country are found to be relatively more efficient and there is a high deviation in the mean efficiencies of different regions. There is an increase in mean efficiencies of all regions from 2002 to 2004. Besides, crop patterns, farm size, education level of household chief and irrigation are found to be effective on efficiency.