Abstract

RODRIGUEZ SPERAT, Ramiro; BRUGIAFREDDO, María Pía  and  RANA, Erica. Technical efficiency in family farming: data envelopment analysis (DEA) vs. Stochastic frontiers approach (SFA). Nova scientia [online]. 2017, vol.9, n.18, pp.342-370. ISSN 2007-0705.  https://doi.org/10.21640/ns.v9i18.697.

This paper studies the technical efficiency in family farming, using as case of study the production of goat milk at the basin of Santiago del Estero, and using DEA and SFA. Regarding the efficiency of the studied farmers, it is observed that goat milk basin of Santiago del Estero has technical efficiency average indices of 0.567 (using DEA CRS), 0.693 (using DEA VRS) and 0.745 (using SFA). By comparing the results it shows that there are no differences in outcomes between DEA (VRS) and SFA, however differences are observed comparing the results of DEA (CRS) and SFA. In this context, no grounds were found to use either method for efficiency studies on family farming. The decision regards of which method to use should be taken considering each particular case, according to the type of information available, the formation of each research and the purpose of each particular study.

Keywords : efficiency; family farming; goat milkery; DEA; SFA.