International Journal of Agricultural Economics

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Technical and Economic Efficiency of Irrigation Water Use for the Farms of Blueberry and Raspberry in the Loukkos Area in Morocco

Received: 19 December 2019    Accepted: 30 December 2019    Published: 07 January 2020
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Abstract

Water scarcity is a major constraint at national level, under the combined effects of irregular rainfall, the country’s growing needs to respond to demographic pressure and the call of competing economic sectors (agriculture, industry, drinking water, tourism, etc.). This situation is further exacerbated by the impact of climate change, so optimization and sustainable water management are a necessity. Within this framework, this research work aims to measure the performance of producers of red fruit farms at the Loukkos perimeter through an empirical analysis of their technical efficiency and efficiency of water use. To achieve this, a deterministic production frontier model (with a production technology represented by a translog functional form) has been specified using the software FRONTIER 4.1, allowing both the estimation of farm efficiency scores and the identification of the explanatory factors for technical inefficiency. Then the estimation of water use efficiency scores using the Reinhard derivative has been measured. Survey data collected from a sample of 40 raspberry and 20 blueberry farms in the Loukkos area were used for this purpose. The results show that a minority of the farms selected are below their production frontier and are characterized by technical inefficiency. The average technical efficiency is 91%, indicating a level ranging from 60% to 99% for raspberry and an average of 91% ranging from 80% to 99% for blueberry. Some of these producers could increase their technical efficiency without having to increase their input volumes. The technical efficiency of water use is higher than 80% for raspberry, for blueberry more than 98%. On the other hand, the economic efficiency of water use scores for both crops is high (99%). As regards the analysis of the determinants of the technical efficiency and efficiency of water use they were analyzed with GRETL using Tobit model, it follows that variables such as age of farm managers, level of education, and planting age for blueberries are significant and influence positively the level of technical efficiency and technical efficiency of water use in raspberry and blueberry operations. These various results were used to identify implications, in terms of development measures, with a view to improving the performance of these farms.

DOI 10.11648/j.ijae.20200501.11
Published in International Journal of Agricultural Economics (Volume 5, Issue 1, January 2020)
Page(s) 1-8
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Blueberry, Raspberry, Water Use Efficiency, Technical Efficiency, Irrigation

References
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[2] Djimasra N. (2009). Efficacité technique, productivité et compétitivité des principaux pays producteurs de coton. Economies et finances. Université d'Orléans, pp. 226-284.
[3] Farrell, M. J. (1957). The measurement of productive efficiency. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series A (General), Vol. 120, n°. 3, pp. 253-290.
[4] Battese, G. E., & Coelli, T. J. (1992). A stochastic frontier production function incorporating a model for technical inefficiency effects. Armidale: University of New England, Dept. of Econometrics. Working papers in econometrics and applied statistics. pp. 69.
[5] Coelli, T. (1996). A Guide to Frontier Version 4.1: A Computer Program for Stochastic Frontier Production and Cost Function Estimation. Working Paper n° 7/96, Centre for Efficiency and Productivity Analysis (CEPA), Department of Econometrics, University of New England, Armidale, Australia.
[6] Aigner, D-J., & Chu, S-F. (1968). On Estimating the Industry Production Function. The American Economic Review, vol. 58, n°. 4, pp. 826-839.
[7] Aigner, D-J., Lovell, C-A., & Schmidt, P. (1977). Formulation and Estimation of Stochastic Frontier Production Functions. Journal of Econometrics, vol. 6, n°. 1, pp. 21-37.
[8] Reinhard, S., Lovell, C. A. K., & Thijssen, G. J. (2000). Environmental efficiency with multiple environmentally detrimental variables; estimated with SFA and DEA. European Journal of Operational Research, vol. 121, n°. 1, pp. 287-303.
[9] Battese G. E. and Coelli T., (1995). A model of technical inefficiency effects in a stochastic frontier production function for panel data. Empirical Economics, Vol. 20, pp 325-332.
[10] Karagiannis G., Tzouvelekas V. and Xepapadeas A., (2003). Measuring irrigation water efficiency with a stochastic production frontier: an application to Greek out-ofseason vegetable cultivation. Environ. Resource Econ. Vol. 26, pp 57–72.
[11] Kopp R. J., (1981). The measurement of productive efficiency: a reconsideration. Quart. J. Econ, Vol. 96, pp 477–503.
[12] Christensen L. R., Jorgenson D. W. et Lou L. J., (1973). Transcendental logarithmic production frontiers. Rev. Econ. Stat, Vol. 55, pp 28–45.
[13] Kneller R. and Stevens A., (2003). The specification of the aggregate production function in the presence of inefficiency. Econ. Lett, Vol. 81, pp 223–226.
[14] Duffy, J., Papageorgiou, C., (2000). A cross-country empirical investigation of the aggregate production function specification. J. Econ. Growth, Vol. 5, pp 87–120.
[15] Varian, H. R., (1978), Microeconomic Analysis. W. W. Norton and Co. Inc., New York.
[16] Maatala, N. (2018). Quels impacts du partenariat public-privé sur les exploitations agricoles et la valorisation de l’eau d’irrigation ? ‘’Cas du projet El Guerdane au Maroc’’. Thèse de doctorat: Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat, Maroc & Université de Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, Gembloux, Belgique.
[17] Maatala, N., Fadlaoui, A., & Lebailly, Ph. (2019). Evaluation of the Impact of Partnership Program on the Technical and Economic Efficiency of Irrigation Water Use for Moroccan Citrus Farms. International Journal of Agricultural Economics, vol. 4, n°. 2, 2019, pp. 70-79.
[18] Maatala, N., Lebailly, Ph., Benabdellah, M., & Dehhaoui, M. (2019). Le mode de gestion du service de l’eau d’irrigation: un déterminant de l’efficacité technique des exploitations agrumicoles du périmètre du Souss-Massa au Maroc. Tropicultura, Vol. 37, n. 3.
Author Information
  • Department of Humanities, Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medecine, Rabat, Morocco

  • Department of Humanities, Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medecine, Rabat, Morocco

  • Department of Humanities, Hassan II Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medecine, Rabat, Morocco

  • Laboratory of Economy and Rural Development, University of Liege, Faculty of Gembloux Agro Bio-Tech, Gembloux, Belgium

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    Nassreddine Maatala, Younes Bekkar, Oumayma El Hassnaoui, Philippe Lebailly. (2020). Technical and Economic Efficiency of Irrigation Water Use for the Farms of Blueberry and Raspberry in the Loukkos Area in Morocco. International Journal of Agricultural Economics, 5(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20200501.11

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    Nassreddine Maatala; Younes Bekkar; Oumayma El Hassnaoui; Philippe Lebailly. Technical and Economic Efficiency of Irrigation Water Use for the Farms of Blueberry and Raspberry in the Loukkos Area in Morocco. Int. J. Agric. Econ. 2020, 5(1), 1-8. doi: 10.11648/j.ijae.20200501.11

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    Nassreddine Maatala, Younes Bekkar, Oumayma El Hassnaoui, Philippe Lebailly. Technical and Economic Efficiency of Irrigation Water Use for the Farms of Blueberry and Raspberry in the Loukkos Area in Morocco. Int J Agric Econ. 2020;5(1):1-8. doi: 10.11648/j.ijae.20200501.11

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijae.20200501.11,
      author = {Nassreddine Maatala and Younes Bekkar and Oumayma El Hassnaoui and Philippe Lebailly},
      title = {Technical and Economic Efficiency of Irrigation Water Use for the Farms of Blueberry and Raspberry in the Loukkos Area in Morocco},
      journal = {International Journal of Agricultural Economics},
      volume = {5},
      number = {1},
      pages = {1-8},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijae.20200501.11},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20200501.11},
      eprint = {https://download.sciencepg.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijae.20200501.11},
      abstract = {Water scarcity is a major constraint at national level, under the combined effects of irregular rainfall, the country’s growing needs to respond to demographic pressure and the call of competing economic sectors (agriculture, industry, drinking water, tourism, etc.). This situation is further exacerbated by the impact of climate change, so optimization and sustainable water management are a necessity. Within this framework, this research work aims to measure the performance of producers of red fruit farms at the Loukkos perimeter through an empirical analysis of their technical efficiency and efficiency of water use. To achieve this, a deterministic production frontier model (with a production technology represented by a translog functional form) has been specified using the software FRONTIER 4.1, allowing both the estimation of farm efficiency scores and the identification of the explanatory factors for technical inefficiency. Then the estimation of water use efficiency scores using the Reinhard derivative has been measured. Survey data collected from a sample of 40 raspberry and 20 blueberry farms in the Loukkos area were used for this purpose. The results show that a minority of the farms selected are below their production frontier and are characterized by technical inefficiency. The average technical efficiency is 91%, indicating a level ranging from 60% to 99% for raspberry and an average of 91% ranging from 80% to 99% for blueberry. Some of these producers could increase their technical efficiency without having to increase their input volumes. The technical efficiency of water use is higher than 80% for raspberry, for blueberry more than 98%. On the other hand, the economic efficiency of water use scores for both crops is high (99%). As regards the analysis of the determinants of the technical efficiency and efficiency of water use they were analyzed with GRETL using Tobit model, it follows that variables such as age of farm managers, level of education, and planting age for blueberries are significant and influence positively the level of technical efficiency and technical efficiency of water use in raspberry and blueberry operations. These various results were used to identify implications, in terms of development measures, with a view to improving the performance of these farms.},
     year = {2020}
    }
    

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    T1  - Technical and Economic Efficiency of Irrigation Water Use for the Farms of Blueberry and Raspberry in the Loukkos Area in Morocco
    AU  - Nassreddine Maatala
    AU  - Younes Bekkar
    AU  - Oumayma El Hassnaoui
    AU  - Philippe Lebailly
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    PY  - 2020
    N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20200501.11
    DO  - 10.11648/j.ijae.20200501.11
    T2  - International Journal of Agricultural Economics
    JF  - International Journal of Agricultural Economics
    JO  - International Journal of Agricultural Economics
    SP  - 1
    EP  - 8
    PB  - Science Publishing Group
    SN  - 2575-3843
    UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijae.20200501.11
    AB  - Water scarcity is a major constraint at national level, under the combined effects of irregular rainfall, the country’s growing needs to respond to demographic pressure and the call of competing economic sectors (agriculture, industry, drinking water, tourism, etc.). This situation is further exacerbated by the impact of climate change, so optimization and sustainable water management are a necessity. Within this framework, this research work aims to measure the performance of producers of red fruit farms at the Loukkos perimeter through an empirical analysis of their technical efficiency and efficiency of water use. To achieve this, a deterministic production frontier model (with a production technology represented by a translog functional form) has been specified using the software FRONTIER 4.1, allowing both the estimation of farm efficiency scores and the identification of the explanatory factors for technical inefficiency. Then the estimation of water use efficiency scores using the Reinhard derivative has been measured. Survey data collected from a sample of 40 raspberry and 20 blueberry farms in the Loukkos area were used for this purpose. The results show that a minority of the farms selected are below their production frontier and are characterized by technical inefficiency. The average technical efficiency is 91%, indicating a level ranging from 60% to 99% for raspberry and an average of 91% ranging from 80% to 99% for blueberry. Some of these producers could increase their technical efficiency without having to increase their input volumes. The technical efficiency of water use is higher than 80% for raspberry, for blueberry more than 98%. On the other hand, the economic efficiency of water use scores for both crops is high (99%). As regards the analysis of the determinants of the technical efficiency and efficiency of water use they were analyzed with GRETL using Tobit model, it follows that variables such as age of farm managers, level of education, and planting age for blueberries are significant and influence positively the level of technical efficiency and technical efficiency of water use in raspberry and blueberry operations. These various results were used to identify implications, in terms of development measures, with a view to improving the performance of these farms.
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