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Environmental efficiency: Meaning and measurement and application to Australian dairy farms

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  • Graham, Mary

Abstract

Technical efficiency has been widely studied in the literature, but in its pursuit, many of the inputs used can impact on the environment. Environmental effects can be modelled as undesirable output or, as has been the case in more recent studies, as conventional inputs. This paper examines the concept of environmental efficiency and how it can be used to evaluate the performance of Australian dairy farming, using nitrogen surplus, arising from excessive applications of fertilizer, as a detrimental input. Farming promotes the image of clean and green production and if this image is to be maintained, there is a need to ensure activities are environmentally friendly

Suggested Citation

  • Graham, Mary, 2004. "Environmental efficiency: Meaning and measurement and application to Australian dairy farms," 2004 Conference (48th), February 11-13, 2004, Melbourne, Australia 58450, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aare04:58450
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.58450
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Alfons Weersink & Calum G. Turvey & Abdulahi Godah, 1990. "Decomposition Measures of Technical Efficiency for Ontario Dairy Farms," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 38(4), pages 1023-1023, December.
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    8. Alfons Weersink & Calum G. Turvey & Abdulahi Godah, 1990. "Decomposition Measures of Technical Efficiency for Ontario Dairy Farms," Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics/Revue canadienne d'agroeconomie, Canadian Agricultural Economics Society/Societe canadienne d'agroeconomie, vol. 38(3), pages 439-456, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Watson, Alistair S., 2005. "Productivity and the Dairy Industry," Australasian Agribusiness Review, University of Melbourne, Department of Agriculture and Food Systems, vol. 13.
    2. Ana Rodríguez-Álvarez & Ignacio Rosal & José Baños-Pino, 2007. "The cost of strikes in the Spanish mining sector: modelling an undesirable input with a distance function," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 73-83, February.
    3. Emilio Galdeano‐Gómez & José Céspedes‐Lorente & Manuel Rodríguez‐Rodríguez, 2006. "Productivity and Environmental Performance in Marketing Cooperatives: An Analysis of the Spanish Horticultural Sector," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(3), pages 479-500, September.
    4. Zainab Bibi & Dilawar Khan & Ihtisham ul Haq, 2021. "Technical and environmental efficiency of agriculture sector in South Asia: a stochastic frontier analysis approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 9260-9279, June.

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