Abstract
This research was aimed study of the impact of at checking the extent of impact of the herd size on the levels of economic efficiency and its components, to indicate the extent of which optimality is realized in the exploitation of sheep breeding fattening inputs and for a sample of 75 farms in the Kokjali region in Nineveh Governorate and for the productive season 2018, spring batch. To achieve the research goal, the sample was divided into three categories according to the numbers of animals in the farms. To measure the economic efficiency and optimality in using the inputs, the DEA data envelopment analysis and the statistical program DEAP were used, and it was found from the results of the analysis that the research sample projects achieved high levels of technical efficiency averaging 0.962, 0.981, and 0.99 for the three categories respectively as a result of breeders having experience and skill in managing the resources used in breeding, whereas the levels of allocative and economic efficiencies were variable in the three categories; the three large volumes achieved the highest levels and averaged 0.852 and 0.843 for the allocative and the economic efficiencies respectively. The results showed that there is an increase in the rates of inputs use of fodder, duration of fattening and labor in the research sample, and a decrease in the use of primary weight inputs and the veterinary services. The third category, which is the largest, achieved the lowest increase and decrease rates compared to other categories, Thus, we recommend the breeders in the research sample projects to take advantage of economies of scale and to exploit barns capacity in proportion to the numbers of animals, and the decision-makers not to follow the open market policy and to put restrictions on smuggling and entry of animals to the country, as well as the necessity of supporting the prices for veterinary services and feed.
Highlights
Agricultural activity has its economic importance in the economic structure of many countries, and animal production is an essential element of realizing self-sufficiency through fulfilling the people’s needs of animal protein represented by red meat, livestock should play an important role in economic development, side by side with planets production since food supply of animal products and their associated products depends on this livestock
The most common type of sheep raised in Kokjali region is Awassi sheep, because they adapt to the conditions of the region and to their response to fattening during an appropriate period not exceeding four months
There is a deviation in the output of these projects from the optimal production that can be achieved as a result of regulating economic resources, breeding, care and feeding in a manner that ensures elevating the production efficiency in projects of sheep breeding and fattening in the research sample
Summary
Agricultural activity has its economic importance in the economic structure of many countries, and animal production is an essential element of realizing self-sufficiency through fulfilling the people’s needs of animal protein represented by red meat, livestock should play an important role in economic development, side by side with planets production since food supply of animal products and their associated products depends on this livestock. Economic efficiency is achieved by fully employing productive resources in a manner that ensures efficient allocation of resources Description of the model used to estimate economic efficiency:To achieve the goal of the research, data were analyzed using the data envelopment method (DEA) and using the DEAP statistical program to obtain the economic efficiency from the input side due to the producer’s control over the inputs more than the outputs with the presence of K of economic variables obtained from unloading the questionnaire form, and the variables included each of (primary sheep weight at purchasing in kg (X1), fodder amount (X2), fattening period (X3), number of workers (X4), veterinary services (X5) and other costs including interest on fixed capital, depreciations and other direct expenses affecting the dependent variable M represented by final animal weight or marketing weight for a sample N of farmers using the theory of dual linear programming and the quantities and prices of economic variables, allocative efficiency and economic efficiency were obtained under circumstances of variable returns to scale (VRS). Table 1. technical, allocative and economic efficiencies for the projects of sheep breeding in the research sample
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