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Technical Efficiency of U.S. Organic Farmers: The Complementary Roles of Soil Management Techniques and Farm Experience

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  • Lohr, Luanne
  • Park, Timothy A.

Abstract

Agricultural policymakers place increasing emphasis on developing efficiency measures for organic producers in order to evaluate regulatory strategies and evolving organic market conditions. We develop technical efficiency measures for U.S. organic farmers using a stochastic production frontier. Farm decisions about acquiring and managing organic soil materials from on-farm and local sources are incorporated into the technical efficiency measure. Productivity differences between newer entrants to organic farming and more experienced producers are estimated in order to isolate the impact of learning and management expertise on farm-level technical efficiency.

Suggested Citation

  • Lohr, Luanne & Park, Timothy A., 2006. "Technical Efficiency of U.S. Organic Farmers: The Complementary Roles of Soil Management Techniques and Farm Experience," Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, Northeastern Agricultural and Resource Economics Association, vol. 35(2), pages 1-12, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:arerjl:10208
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.10208
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    Cited by:

    1. Djokoto, Justice G., 2015. "Technical efficiency of organic agriculture: a quantitative review," Studies in Agricultural Economics, Research Institute for Agricultural Economics, vol. 117(2), pages 1-11, August.
    2. Lakner, S., 2010. "Einflussfaktoren auf die Effizienz von Ökologisch wirtschaftenden Milchviehbetrieben – Die Rolle von Agglomerationen und von Agrarpolitischer Förderung," Proceedings “Schriften der Gesellschaft für Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaften des Landbaues e.V.”, German Association of Agricultural Economists (GEWISOLA), vol. 45, March.
    3. Jorge Andres, Perdomo Calvo & Darrell Lee, Hueth & Jorge Andres, Perdomo Calvo, 2011. "Funciones de producción, análisis de economías a escala y eficiencia técnica en el eje cafetero colombiano: una aproximación con frontera estocástica [Estimation of the Production Functional Form, ," MPRA Paper 37179, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Lakner, Sebastian, 2009. "Technical efficiency of organic milk-farms in Germany - the role of subsidies and of regional factors," 2009 Conference, August 16-22, 2009, Beijing, China 51301, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    5. Lakner, Sebastian & Breustedt, Gunnar, 2015. "Efficiency analysis of organic farming systems- a review of methods, topics, results, and conclusions," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212025, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Serra, Teresa & Chambers, Robert G. & Oude Lansink, Alfons, 2014. "Measuring technical and environmental efficiency in a state-contingent technology," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 236(2), pages 706-717.
    7. Bouali Guesmi & Teresa Serra & Allen Featherstone, 2015. "Technical efficiency of Kansas arable crop farms: a local maximum likelihood approach," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(6), pages 703-713, November.

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