Technical Efficiency of Tomato Production in Kamyaran County with an Emphasis on Integrated Land Management Strategies

Articles in Press

Document Type : Systematic Review

Authors
Farideh Namdari S
Hamed Ghaderzadeh
Parisa Alizadeh
Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Islamic Republic of Iran.
Abstract
Low production efficiency and land fragmentation are two of the most pressing challenges facing the agricultural sector in Iran. Given the importance of tomato production and Iran’s role in this crop, this study evaluates the technical efficiency of tomato farmers in Kamyaran County, Kurdistan Province, with an emphasis on integrated land management. Data were collected from 200 tomato farmers during the 2023–2024 agricultural year using simple random sampling. A Cobb–Douglas stochastic frontier production function was employed to estimate technical efficiency. The results indicate that labor, number of irrigation events, and cultivated area had positive and significant effects, whereas the use of chemical fungicides had a negative and significant effect on tomato production and technical efficiency. The number of cultivated plots, as an indicator of land fragmentation, had a negative and significant effect on tomato production, reflecting higher management costs and reduced input-use efficiency in fragmented farms. Although the effects of cultivated area and number of plots in the technical efficiency function were not statistically significant, their coefficient signs were consistent with theoretical expectations and the production function results. The analysis of technical efficiency distribution shows that average technical efficiency in large-sized farms is considerably higher than in medium and small farms. Farmers’ age had a negative effect, while farming experience had a positive and significant impact on technical efficiency. Based on the results, to enhance technical efficiency, optimal input management through targeted training, implementation of land consolidation policies, participatory agriculture, and improvement of farm management structures are recommended.
Keywords
Land consolidation
Land fragmentation
Stochastic frontier analysis
Technical efficiency
Tomato production
Subjects
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Journal of Agricultural Science and Technology

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 27 June 2026