Measuring Efficiency of Rice Growing Farmers Using Data Envelopment Analysis

摘要

Self-sufficiency in rice production has been the main issue in Malaysia agriculture. It is significantly low and does not comply with the current average rice yield of 3.7 tons per ha per season. One of the best options and the most effective way to improve rice productivity is through more efficient utilization of paddy farmers. Getting farmers to grow rice is indeed a challenge when they could very well be making better money doing something else. This paper attempts to study the efficiency of rice growing farmers in Kubang Pasu using Data Envelopment Analysis model. For comparative analysis, three scenarios are considered in this study in measuring efficiency of rice growing farmers. The first scenario considers only fertilizer factor as an input while for the second, the land size is added as another factor. The third scenario considers more details about the inputs such as the type of fertilizer, NPK and mixed and also land tenureship and size. In all scenarios, the outputs are rice yield (tons) and the profit (RM). As expected, the findings show that the third scenario establishes the highest number of efficient rice growing farmers. It reveals that the combination of outputs and inputs chosen has significant contribution in measuring efficiency of rice growing farmers.