Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/8903
Title: Technical efficiency and technology gaps on 'clean and safe' vegetable farms in northern Thailand: a comparison of different technologies
Contributor(s): Kramol, Pang (author); Villano, Renato  (author)orcid ; Fleming, Euan  (author); Kristiansen, Paul  (author)orcid 
Publication Date: 2010
Handle Link: https://hdl.handle.net/1959.11/8903
Abstract: "Clean and safe" agricultural products are an important issue among consumers, farmers and governments. Many developing countries develop their produce at various points along the 'clean' continuum based on production practices related to use of synthetic chemicals. Organic farming is applied to technologies with no chemicals or synthetic fertilisers used during production or processing. It was initially developed by farmers and non-government organisations in Thailand, and subsequently implemented by the Thai government through a series of policies on clean produce to meet international standards. Safe-use and pesticide-free practices lie between organic and conventional practices, and are possible steps when converting conventional farms to organic farms. We compare the technical efficiencies and technology gaps of the four farming systems in northern Thailand of which three - organic, pesticide-free and safe-use - are designated 'clean and safe'. Farm-level data on vegetable production were collected from random samples of farms using these technologies. A metafrontier model was estimated, enabling the estimation of technical efficiencies and technology gap ratios (TGRs) for vegetable farms operating under the different production systems. Conventional farms were expected to have the highest mean TGR (smallest distance from the metafrontier) as they are least constrained in the way they farm, and results bear out this expectation. The mean TGR for conventional farms is 0.80, significantly higher than that for organic farms at 0.45. But all production systems have farms lying on the metafrontier. In contrast to the TGR results, conventional farms have the lowest mean technical efficiency relative to their group frontier (0.33) and pesticide-free vegetable farms the highest (0.47), most likely reflecting the different degrees of technical assistance provided to farmers in these groups. Organic farming is that farmers in this group did not perform markedly worse than farmers in other groups in terms of productivity. There are numerous organisations and projects providing assistance for 'clean and safe' vegetable farming in northern Thailand. Scope exists to improve the performance of farmers in all groups as technical efficiencies and TGRs of farms vary widely in all groups. Improvements are needed for agronomic technology, supply chains, farmer capacity in production and marketing, and effectiveness of technology transfer strategies.
Publication Type: Conference Publication
Conference Details: AARES 2010: 54th Annual Conference of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, Adelaide, Australia, 10th - 12th February, 2010
Source of Publication: Proceedings of the 54th Annual Conference of the Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society
Publisher: Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society (AARES)
Place of Publication: Australia
Fields of Research (FoR) 2008: 140301 Cross-Sectional Analysis
140202 Economic Development and Growth
140201 Agricultural Economics
Socio-Economic Objective (SEO) 2008: 910210 Production
910404 Productivity (excl. Public Sector)
HERDC Category Description: E2 Non-Refereed Scholarly Conference Publication
Publisher/associated links: http://purl.umn.edu/59092
http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/bitstream/59092/2/Kramol%2c%20P.pdf
Appears in Collections:Conference Publication
School of Environmental and Rural Science

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