What is it about?
The paper explores the effectiveness of both traditional and organic dairy farming methods in Estonia from 2006 to 2015. By analyzing data from the Farm Accountancy Data Network, the researchers investigated whether organic farms were as technically efficient as conventional ones. They also looked into why farmers chose organic methods and tested whether both types of farms used similar technology.
Featured Image
Photo by Stijn te Strake on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The findings showed that organic farms tended to be less efficient than conventional ones. However, when the analysis accounted for the appropriate technology used, the efficiency gap between organic and conventional farms narrowed significantly. This suggests that proper technology usage is crucial for assessing efficiency accurately.
Perspectives
The study revealed that technical efficiency didn't improve much over the years, hinting at a possible lack of knowledge in organic dairy farming that may hinder its progress. It was also noted that larger farms tended to be more efficient, implying that organic dairy farms should consider increasing their scale to enhance efficiency.
Professor Imre Ferto
Centre for Economic and Regional Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences: Budapest
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Are Organic Farms Less Efficient? The Case of Estonian Dairy Farms, Agris on-line Papers in Economics and Informatics, March 2024, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague,
DOI: 10.7160/aol.2024.160103.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
