Open AccessTechnical and economic efficiency analysis on Italian smallholder family farms using Farm Accountancy Data Network dataset
Author(s) -
Nicola Galluzzo
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
studies in agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2063-0476
pISSN - 1418-2106
DOI - 10.7896/j.1501
Subject(s) - economics , economic analysis , business , agribusiness , agricultural science , accounting , agricultural economics , agriculture , geography , environmental science , archaeology
More than 90 per cent of Italian farms have a usable agricultural area of less than 9 ha, even if over time there has been a\udgrowth of the average agricultural area per farm as a consequence of rural out-migration. This paper compares, using a nonparametric\udmodel, the technical efficiency of smallholder family (diretto coltivatrice), co-operative and limited company farms\udduring the period 2000-2011. The diretto coltivatrice farms and the co-operative farms had higher levels of scale efficiency than\udthe limited company farms, with a scale efficiency value equal to 100 per cent in ten years out of twelve. The average technical\udefficiency of diretto coltivatrice farms was higher than those of co-operative and limited company farms. The second part of\udthe quantitative analysis used the self-organising maps (SOM) proposed by Kohonen. The SOMs indicated that the size of the\udagricultural area has a direct impact on the technical efficiency of farms and on their level of income