Technical Efficiency of Cooperative Member Vis-A-Vis Non-Member Dairy Farms in Gujarat-Application of Data Envelopment Analysis

Objectives : To compare the technical efficiency scores of dairy cooperative member and non-member farms across the districts in Gujarat selected from regions having different level of dairy development. Methods/Statistical Analysis : The present study has analyzed and compared the technical efficiency of 180 dairy farmers using a non-parametric approach i.e., Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The study is based on the primary data collected during 2016-17 using a well-structured, comprehensive and pre-tested interview schedule. Apart from conventional analysis, box-plot and scatter-plot were used to compare the efficiency scores. Findings : The investigation identified regional disparities in efficiency scores based on dairy development. The DEA results showed that member farmers of the district selected from low (Tapi), moderate (Bharuch) and highly (Anand) dairy developed regions were more efficient than their respective non-member counterpart. Similarly, the overall comparison between dairy cooperative members and non-members showed that the efficiency of member farmers was 83.27% while for non-members it was 75.31%. Further, the results revealed that small herd size farmers were most efficient in both member (87.21%) and non-member (81.59%) categories. The paper established that membership in dairy cooperatives; herd size as well as status of dairy development in a region greatly influences the technical efficiency of farmers. Application/Improvements : Overall, the study concludes that 24.69% and 16.73% inefficiency exist respectively in dairy cooperatives non-member and member farms indicating the scope for increasing the realized output with same level of resources and production technology.