IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i3p1132-d485169.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Irrigation, Technical Efficiency, and Farm Size: The Case of Brazil

Author

Listed:
  • Gabriel A. Sampaio Morais

    (Public Policy and Sustainable Development Institute (IPPDS), Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa, Minas Gerais 36570-900, Brazil)

  • Felipe F. Silva

    (Agricultural Sciences Department, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634, USA)

  • Carlos Otávio de Freitas

    (Departamento de Ciências Administrativas, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), Seropédica, Rio de Janeiro 23890-000, Brazil)

  • Marcelo José Braga

    (Public Policy and Sustainable Development Institute (IPPDS), Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), Viçosa, Minas Gerais 36570-900, Brazil)

Abstract

In developing countries, irrigation can help to decrease poverty in rural areas through increased employment in the agricultural sector. Evidence shows that irrigation may increase farm productivity and technical efficiency. In this paper, we estimate the effect of irrigation on farm technical efficiency in Brazil using the 2006 Agricultural Census dataset on more than 4 million farms. We estimate a stochastic production frontier at farm level, considering potential selection bias in irrigation adoption. We find that farms using irrigation are on average 2.51% more technically efficient compared to rain-fed farms. Our findings also suggest that while small farms are more efficient than medium and large farms, the largest difference in technical efficiency between rain-fed and irrigated farms is among large farms. Our results indicate that policies that seek to support expansion of irrigation adoption has also the potential to achieve greater rural development given the estimated effects estimated in this paper among very small and small farms, which are more than 70% of the farms in Brazil.

Suggested Citation

  • Gabriel A. Sampaio Morais & Felipe F. Silva & Carlos Otávio de Freitas & Marcelo José Braga, 2021. "Irrigation, Technical Efficiency, and Farm Size: The Case of Brazil," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-21, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:1132-:d:485169
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1132/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1132/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. William Greene, 2010. "A stochastic frontier model with correction for sample selection," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 34(1), pages 15-24, August.
    2. da Cunha, Dênis Antônio & Coelho, Alexandre Bragança & Féres, José Gustavo, 2015. "Irrigation as an adaptive strategy to climate change: an economic perspective on Brazilian agriculture," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 57-79, February.
    3. Boris Bravo-Ureta & William Greene & Daniel Solís, 2012. "Technical efficiency analysis correcting for biases from observed and unobserved variables: an application to a natural resource management project," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(1), pages 55-72, August.
    4. Foster, Andrew D & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1995. "Learning by Doing and Learning from Others: Human Capital and Technical Change in Agriculture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(6), pages 1176-1209, December.
    5. Rajagopal, 2014. "Technology Diffusion and Adoption," Palgrave Macmillan Books, in: Architecting Enterprise, chapter 6, pages 148-173, Palgrave Macmillan.
    6. Steven Passel & Emanuele Massetti & Robert Mendelsohn, 2017. "A Ricardian Analysis of the Impact of Climate Change on European Agriculture," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(4), pages 725-760, August.
    7. Margarita Genius & Phoebe Koundouri & Céline Nauges & Vangelis Tzouvelekas, 2014. "Information Transmission in Irrigation Technology Adoption and Diffusion: Social Learning, Extension Services, and Spatial Effects," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 96(1), pages 328-344.
    8. Hainmueller, Jens, 2012. "Entropy Balancing for Causal Effects: A Multivariate Reweighting Method to Produce Balanced Samples in Observational Studies," Political Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 20(1), pages 25-46, January.
    9. Battese, George E. & Coelli, Tim J., 1988. "Prediction of firm-level technical efficiencies with a generalized frontier production function and panel data," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 38(3), pages 387-399, July.
    10. Marra, Michele & Pannell, David J. & Abadi Ghadim, Amir, 2003. "The economics of risk, uncertainty and learning in the adoption of new agricultural technologies: where are we on the learning curve?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 75(2-3), pages 215-234.
    11. Helfand, Steven M. & Levine, Edward S., 2004. "Farm size and the determinants of productive efficiency in the Brazilian Center-West," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 241-249, December.
    12. repec:bla:scandj:v:85:y:1983:i:2:p:181-90 is not listed on IDEAS
    13. Heckman, James, 2013. "Sample selection bias as a specification error," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 31(3), pages 129-137.
    14. Vrachioli, M. & Stefanou, S. & Tzouvelekas, V., 2018. "Impact Evaluation of New Irrigation Technology in Crete: Correcting for Selectivity Bias," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275973, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Benjamin T. Anang & Stefan Bäckman & Antonios Rezitis, 2017. "Production technology and technical efficiency: irrigated and rain-fed rice farms in northern Ghana," Eurasian Economic Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 7(1), pages 95-113, April.
    16. Barros, Emanoel de Souza & Costa, Ecio de Farias & Sampaio, Yony, 2004. "Análise de Eficiência das Empresas Agrícolas do Pólo Petrolina/Juazeiro Utilizando a Fronteira Paramétrica Translog," Brazilian Journal of Rural Economy and Sociology (Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural-RESR), Sociedade Brasileira de Economia e Sociologia Rural, vol. 42(4), pages 1-18, December.
    17. Janka Vanschoenwinkel & Steven Passel, 2018. "Climate response of rainfed versus irrigated farms: the bias of farm heterogeneity in irrigation," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 147(1), pages 225-234, March.
    18. Nan Jiang & Basil Sharp, 2015. "Technical efficiency and technological gap of New Zealand dairy farms: a stochastic meta-frontier model," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(1), pages 39-49, August.
    19. Chokri Dridi & Madhu Khanna, 2005. "Irrigation Technology Adoption and Gains from Water Trading under Asymmetric Information," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 87(2), pages 289-301.
    20. Hughes, Neal & Lawson, Kenton & Davidson, Alistair & Jackson, Tom & Sheng, Yu, 2011. "Productivity pathways: climate-adjusted production frontiers for the Australian broadacre cropping industry," 2011 Conference (55th), February 8-11, 2011, Melbourne, Australia 100563, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society.
    21. G. Karagiannis & V. Tzouvelekas & A. Xepapadeas, 2003. "Measuring Irrigation Water Efficiency with a Stochastic Production Frontier," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 26(1), pages 57-72, September.
    22. Schoengold, Karina & Zilberman, David, 2007. "The Economics of Water, Irrigation, and Development," Handbook of Agricultural Economics, in: Robert Evenson & Prabhu Pingali (ed.), Handbook of Agricultural Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 58, pages 2933-2977, Elsevier.
    23. Phoebe Koundouri & Céline Nauges & Vangelis Tzouvelekas, 2006. "Technology Adoption under Production Uncertainty: Theory and Application to Irrigation Technology," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 88(3), pages 657-670.
    24. Melesse, Kumilachew Alamerie & Ahmed, Musa Hasen, 2015. "A Comparative Stochastic Frontier Analysis Of Irrigated And Rain-Fed Potato Farms In Eastern Ethiopia," Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development, University of Life Sciences, Poznan, Poland, vol. 38(4).
    25. Dawit K. Mekonnen & David J. Spielman & Esendugue Greg Fonsah & Jeffrey H. Dorfman, 2015. "Innovation systems and technical efficiency in developing-country agriculture," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 46(5), pages 689-702, September.
    26. Martina Bozzola & Emanuele Massetti & Robert Mendelsohn & Fabian Capitanio, 2018. "A Ricardian analysis of the impact of climate change on Italian agriculture," European Review of Agricultural Economics, Oxford University Press and the European Agricultural and Applied Economics Publications Foundation, vol. 45(1), pages 57-79.
    27. Pradeep Kurukulasuriya & Robert Mendelsohn & Rashid Hassan & James Benhin & Temesgen Deressa & Mbaye Diop & Helmy Mohamed Eid & K. Yerfi Fosu & Glwadys Gbetibouo & Suman Jain & Ali Mahamadou & Renneth, 2006. "Will African Agriculture Survive Climate Change?," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 20(3), pages 367-388.
    28. Speelman, Stijn & D'Haese, Marijke & Buysse, Jeroen & D'Haese, Luc, 2008. "A measure for the efficiency of water use and its determinants, a case study of small-scale irrigation schemes in North-West Province, South Africa," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 98(1), pages 31-39, July.
    29. Battese, George E., 1992. "Frontier production functions and technical efficiency: a survey of empirical applications in agricultural economics," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 7(3-4), pages 185-208, October.
    30. Raphael Olanrewaju Babatunde, & Mercy Funke Salami, & Baba Abdullahi Muhammed, 2017. "Determinants Of Yield Gap In Rainfed And Irrigated Rice Production Systems – Evidence From Household Survey In Kwara State, Nigeria," Journal of Agribusiness and Rural Development, University of Life Sciences, Poznan, Poland, vol. 43(1), March.
    31. Renato Villano & Boris Bravo-Ureta & Daniel Solís & Euan Fleming, 2015. "Modern Rice Technologies and Productivity in the Philippines: Disentangling Technology from Managerial Gaps," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(1), pages 129-154, February.
    32. Schaible, Glenn D. & Aillery, Marcel P., 2012. "Water Conservation in Irrigated Agriculture: Trends and Challenges in the Face of Emerging Demands," Economic Information Bulletin 134692, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    33. Abdulai Adams & Bedru Balana & Nicole Lefore, 2020. "Efficiency of Small-scale Irrigation Farmers in Northern Ghana: A Data Envelopment Analysis Approach," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 14(3), pages 332-352, August.
    34. Rada, Nicholas & Helfand, Steven & Magalhães, Marcelo, 2019. "Agricultural productivity growth in Brazil: Large and small farms excel," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 176-185.
    35. Thiam, Abdourahmane & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Rivas, Teodoro E., 2001. "Technical efficiency in developing country agriculture: a meta-analysis," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 25(2-3), pages 235-243, September.
    36. Battese, G E & Coelli, T J, 1995. "A Model for Technical Inefficiency Effects in a Stochastic Frontier Production Function for Panel Data," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 20(2), pages 325-332.
    37. Christopher O’Donnell & D. Rao & George Battese, 2008. "Metafrontier frameworks for the study of firm-level efficiencies and technology ratios," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 34(2), pages 231-255, March.
    38. Jema Haji, 2007. "Production Efficiency of Smallholders' Vegetable-dominated Mixed Farming System in Eastern Ethiopia: A Non-Parametric Approach," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 16(1), pages 1-27, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Juan José, Perfetti & Leibovich,, José & Delgado, Martha & López, Enrique, 2024. "La tierra para uso agropecuario en Colombia: equidad y productividad," Cuadernos de Fedesarrollo 21192, Fedesarrollo.
    2. Perfetti, Juan José & Leibovich,, José & Delgado, Martha & López, Enrique, 2024. "La tierra para uso agropecuario en Colombia: equidad y productividad," Informes de Investigación 21032, Fedesarrollo.
    3. Nguyen-Anh, Tuan & Hoang-Duc, Chinh & Tiet, Tuyen & Nguyen-Van, Phu & To-The, Nguyen, 2022. "Composite effects of human, natural and social capitals on sustainable food-crop farming in Sub-Saharan Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 113(C).
    4. Donghui Song & Fengbo Chen & Xi Ouyang, 2024. "The Impact of Changes in Rural Family Structure on Agricultural Productivity and Efficiency: Evidence from Rice Farmers in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(10), pages 1-20, May.
    5. Wirat Krasachat, 2023. "The Effect of Good Agricultural Practices on the Technical Efficiency of Chili Production in Thailand," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-25, January.
    6. Batabyal, Amitrajeet A. & Beladi, Hamid, 2021. "A game-theoretic model of water theft during a drought," Agricultural Water Management, Elsevier, vol. 255(C).
    7. Danilo Đokić & Tihomir Novaković & Dragana Tekić & Bojan Matkovski & Stanislav Zekić & Dragan Milić, 2022. "Technical Efficiency of Agriculture in the European Union and Western Balkans: SFA Method," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-18, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Jara-Rojas, Roberto & Lachaud, Michee A. & Moreira L., Victor H. & Scheierling, Susanne M., 2015. "Water and Farm Efficiency: Insights from the Frontier Literature," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 206076, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Bravo-Ureta, Boris E. & Higgins, Daniel & Arslan, Aslihan, 2020. "Irrigation infrastructure and farm productivity in the Philippines: A stochastic Meta-Frontier analysis," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    3. Owusu, Eric S. & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E., 2022. "Reap when you sow? The productivity impacts of early sowing in Malawi," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    4. Sreejith Aravindakshan & Frederick Rossi & T. S. Amjath-Babu & Prakashan Chellattan Veettil & Timothy J. Krupnik, 2018. "Application of a bias-corrected meta-frontier approach and an endogenous switching regression to analyze the technical efficiency of conservation tillage for wheat in South Asia," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 49(2), pages 153-171, June.
    5. Sabrina Auci & Donatella Vignani, 2020. "Climate variability and agriculture in Italy: a stochastic frontier analysis at the regional level," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 37(2), pages 381-409, July.
    6. Asante, Bright O. & Temoso, Omphile & Addai, Kwabena N. & Villano, Renato A., 2019. "Evaluating productivity gaps in maize production across different agroecological zones in Ghana," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    7. Giannis Karagiannis, 2014. "Modeling issues in applied efficiency analysis: agriculture," Economics and Business Letters, Oviedo University Press, vol. 3(1), pages 12-18.
    8. Ferreira, Marcelo Dias Paes & Féres, José Gustavo, 2020. "Farm size and Land use efficiency in the Brazilian Amazon," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    9. Carrer, Marcelo José & Filho, Hildo Meirelles de Souza & Vinholis, Marcela de Mello Brandão & Mozambani, Carlos Ivan, 2022. "Precision agriculture adoption and technical efficiency: An analysis of sugarcane farms in Brazil," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    10. Sabrina Auci & Nicolò Barbieri & Manuela Coromaldi & Donatella Vignani, 2021. "Innovation for climate change adaptation and technical efficiency: an empirical analysis in the European agricultural sector," Economia Politica: Journal of Analytical and Institutional Economics, Springer;Fondazione Edison, vol. 38(2), pages 597-623, July.
    11. repec:ags:bdbjaf:258303 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Abdul-Rahaman, Awal & Issahaku, Gazali & Zereyesus, Yacob A., 2021. "Improved rice variety adoption and farm production efficiency: Accounting for unobservable selection bias and technology gaps among smallholder farmers in Ghana," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    13. Boris E. Bravo‐Ureta & Mario González‐Flores & William Greene & Daniel Solís, 2021. "Technology and Technical Efficiency Change: Evidence from a Difference in Differences Selectivity Corrected Stochastic Production Frontier Model," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 103(1), pages 362-385, January.
    14. Villano, Renato & Asante, Bright Owusu & Bravo-Ureta, Boris, 2019. "Farming systems and productivity gaps: Opportunities for improving smallholder performance in the Forest-Savannah transition zone of Ghana," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 220-227.
    15. Sauer, Johannes & Zilberman, David, 2009. "Innovation Behaviour At Farm Level – Selection And Identification," 83rd Annual Conference, March 30 - April 1, 2009, Dublin, Ireland 51073, Agricultural Economics Society.
    16. Morais, G. & Braga, J.M., 2018. "Irrigation and farm efficiency in Brazil," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275987, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Gabriel S. Sampson & Edward D. Perry, 2019. "Peer effects in the diffusion of water‐saving agricultural technologies," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 50(6), pages 693-706, November.
    18. Kamiche Zegarra, J. & Bravo-Ureta, B., 2018. "Are users of market information efficient? A stochastic production frontier model corrected by sample selection," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 275870, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Koundouri, Phoebe & Nauges, Céline & Tzouvelekas, Vangelis, 2009. "The Effect of Production Uncertainty and Information Dissemination of the Diffusion of Irrigation Technologies," TSE Working Papers 09-032, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    20. Hrozencik, Aaron & Aillery, Marcel, 2021. "Trends in U.S. Irrigated Agriculture: Increasing Resilience Under Water Supply Scarcity," USDA Miscellaneous 316792, United States Department of Agriculture.
    21. Sauer, Johannes & Zilberman, David D., 2009. "Innovation behaviour at micro level - selection and identification," Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley, Working Paper Series qt6t49r0fh, Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, UC Berkeley.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:1132-:d:485169. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.