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Ratoon Rice (RR) has been proposed to be an effective alternative rice system to increase productivity growth and reduce the environmental impact, but data on the economic performance of RR for farmers are limited. A survey of paddy farms was conducted to assess the impact of the adoption of RR in Hubei, China. Endogenous switching regression framework was used to account for observed and unobserved heterogeneity. We analyzed the effect of yield, income, and technical efficiency of RR adoption. Results show that adoption of RR has great impact on yield, income, and technical efficiency. Increase in rice yield (by 5.12%) and rice income (3.74%) was found for RR farmers; increases of yield, income and technical efficiency was also significant if farmers cultivating single rice shifted to RR. Technical efficiency showed a large difference when RR was adopted by farmers cultivating single rice. Small farms and large farms benefit from the adoption of RR. Large farms benefit more yield and income than small farmer, while small farms are more efficient than large farms. Our findings provide meaningful and timely implications for future national programs and policies to promote the implementation of RR in China that aim to promote more sustainable practices and lower environmental impact in agriculture.

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The sugar industry has many backward and forward linkages in the supply chain. In this industry, a chain of agricultural, industrial, oil, transportation, and commerce sectors is engaged to transform raw materials into product and shipping it to consumers. In this research, the efficiency of decision-making units in Iran's sugar supply chain is evaluated using network and simple Data Envelopment Analysis methods. Results of the first level of decentralized sugar supply chain in Iran (extraction of sugar from sugar beets) indicate that the average technical efficiency in terms of a constant return to scale and the allocation, economic, and scale efficiency are not at appropriate levels. In the second level of supply chain, weakness was observed in allocative and economic efficiency. The results showed that the Provinces of West Azerbaijan and Khorasan-e Razavi offer desirable conditions for sugar beet production in terms of efficiency. Supply chain management has been used as a tool for timely delivery of the product to market at a lower cost to increase the efficiency of the entire sugar supply chain. A move toward vertical integration in sugar production is also proposed to benefit integration.

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The purposes of the study were: (i) To comparatively estimate the economic performance and productive efficiency of owner and sharecroppers in Kaş District of Antalya Province in Turkey, (ii) To find out the factors affecting the profitability of owner operators and sharecroppers, and (iii) To formulate the policy options in the light of findings. Research data were collected from randomly selected 58 owner operators and 45 sharecroppers by using questionnaire. Cluster analysis was performed to select similar sharecropper and owner operator in terms of farmers’ profile, farm income, and land size. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to estimate the efficiency measures. Research result showed that labor cost of sample farm had largest share in total farm expenses. The tomato and pepper yield of sharecroppers were higher than that of owners. Net farm income of owner operator and sharecroppers per hectare were $44518.3 and $51248.8, respectively. The mean technical, allocative and economic efficiency of owner operators were 0.724, 0.729 and 0.528, respectively, while that of sharecroppers was 0.851, 0.598 and 0.509, respectively. Sharecroppers had higher technical efficiency score compared to owners, but reverse was the case for allocative and cost efficiency scores. According to the research findings, farmers can increase their technical competence, if both owner operator and sharecropper improved their skills by participating in training and extension programs. Implementing performance-based earning systems may accelerate improving farmers’ technical capability. Reorganizing of farm and controlling marketing cost may also be beneficial for increasing economic efficiency in the research area.

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The purpose of this research was to investigate whether the European Union's high amounts of construction and technology grants provided to dairy farms under The Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance for Rural Development (IPARD) program make a real contribution in terms of energy use and efficiency. The primary data of the study were obtained from Dairy Farms Supported (SDF) and Non-Supported (NSDF) by the IPARD program by using a questionnaire filled during the face-to-face interviews. The full count method was used to determine the 50 SDF while the Neyman allocation sampling method was used to determine the 100 NSDF. Energy indicators were used to evaluate the efficiency of input energy transformation into output and data envelopment analysis was used to calculate technical efficiency and pure technical efficiency. Unlike other studies in the literature, we analyzed energy efficiency of dairy farms in terms of the contribution of the EU supports. The results showed that SDF were more energy-efficient dairy farms with much better energy indicators and efficiency scores than NSDF. Productivity, benefit/cost ratios, and energy scores clearly show that EU grants given to dairy farms contribute to the efficient use of resources, including energy, increasing the competitiveness of dairy farms, and contributing to the rural area through energy efficiency and economic performance.

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Participatory Irrigation Management (PIM) has emerged as a significant intervention in which farmers are given more control over irrigation management. The primary goal of this study was to identify the factors that influence farmers' participation in PIM activities and compare the economic viability of participation levels. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to collect the data from 240 farmers of Nasrana and Maduana distributaries located at the tail end of the Lower Chenab Canal (LCC) west circle in district Faisalabad, Punjab, Pakistan, using a structured questionnaire. The factors influencing farmers' participation in PIM activities were identified using an ordered Probit Regression model. The findings revealed that education level (β= 0.12; P=0.00), village leadership (β= 0.97; P= 0.00), and being a beneficiary of a water user association (β=1.20; P= 0.00) all had a significant positive influence on farmers' participation in PIM activities. On the other hand, family size (β= -0.05 P= 0.04), land ownership (β= -0.44; P= 0.05), and off-farm income (β= -0.52; P= 0.01) were found to have a significant negative impact on farmers' participation. Farmers with a high level of participation had higher farm technical efficiency and crop productivity. For these reasons, farming communities must be encouraged to participate in PIM activities in order to achieve a sustainable irrigation system.

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The purpose of this work was to analyse the energy productivity and efficiency of agricultural enterprises growing poppy. The number of enterprises investigated in the study was determined from a stratified random sample of 87, the data is from 2019, and the study was conducted in Turkey. All inputs and outputs used in poppy production were obtained by multiplying energy equations with conversion coefficients in determining the energy use of the enterprises. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method was employed to calculate the technical, pure-technical, and scale efficiency of poppy-producing enterprises. Poppy energy inputs consisted of the use of human labour, machinery, fertilizer, pesticides, seeds, water, and fuel. The poppy capsule yield per unit area was regarded as the energy output. In the end, 40.23% of the total energy input in poppy production consisted of direct and 59.77% indirect energy. Non-renewable energy consumption (88.70%) was found to be rather high in the research area. Therefore, the use of chemical fertilizers and fuels, which are non-renewable energy sources, must be lessened for poppy plant production. The energy efficiency was found to be 0.08 in poppy production. According to this result, the production systems of the enterprises producing poppy are sufficient and energy is used efficiently. The specific energy value in the enterprises was calculated as 11.95 MJ kg^-1 and the Technical Efficiency (TE) was calculated as 0.683. Producers produce at the same level with 68.3% of their capital, and 31.7 % saving.

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A survey was conducted to assess the technical and allocative efficiency of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) production under the plastic house in metropolitan city of Pokhara, Nepal. From the total tomato growers, 80 farmers were selected through multistage sampling. Stochastic frontier approach is applied to the obtained survey data and analyzed to study the technical and allocative efficiency of tomato production. This research is essential for enhancing tomato yields without incurring additional input expenses. Our results find the mean technical efficiency of 78.19%, which shows the great opportunity of improvement of tomato production in Pokhara. Technical efficiency is positively influenced by education level and training availability and negatively affected by farmers' ages. Subsidy has non-significant effect on technical efficiency in the study area. The allocative efficiency ratio of plastic house area, seed, and di-ammonium phosphate shows its underutilization with a score above 1. On the contrary, farmyard manure, urea and muriate of potash application are overutilized with a score of less than 1. The efficiency in tomato production can be improved by optimal allocation of resources, encouraging young farmers in farming, increasing access to education and training to farmers, and change in current subsidy mechanism. Through corrective measures, policies, and practices, an efficient frontier could be achieved by the tomato-growing farmers of the study area, which ultimately will maximize profit without necessarily increasing input level.