Estimating the Sustainable Efficiency and Economic Efficiency of Vegetable Crop Growers in Baghdad Governorate

Abstract

The research aims to measure the sustainability value and efficiency of sustainable for vegetable crops in the Baghdad governorate. Additionally, it aims to assess the economic efficiency for the agricultural season of 2022-2023. The research sample includes 182 farmers from the studied province, analyzed using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method. The explanatory variables for sustainability value include factors such as cultivated area, working hours, capital excluding land rent, household consumption of vegetable crops, fuel, and nitrogen fertilizer. The dependent variable is agricultural production value. The variables for sustainable efficiency encompass cultivated area, seed quantity, fertilizer quantity, pesticide quantity, number of workers, and irrigation frequency. The results indicate that there is a sustainable value for the utilized resources, reaching approximately 1.6. Moreover, the sustainability efficiency reaches about (1.2). This implies that despite resource wastage, farmers have positive and satisfactory productivity. However, the average economic efficiency is around 70.81%, revealing that vegetable crop farmers in Baghdad’s province have not achieved full economic efficiency of 100%. There is a notable variation in achieving these levels, necessitating changes in the utilization of production inputs to enhance productivity. The research recommends that farmers should redistribute resources to minimize waste, aiming to reach the optimal combination that maximizes profits while minimizing costs. This could be achieved by seeking guidance from experienced farmers and experts or by providing training on modern technology usage and mechanization of production resources. Furthermore, the research suggests the importance of conducting further studies on cost-return variation and resource utilization to evaluate sustainability.