Aromatic rice production and sustainability in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta: a slack-based measure from data envelopment analysis

The Vietnamese government has developed a strategy for rice production with the goal of reducing export volumes and concentrating on the quality of aromatic and high-quality rice. There are approximately 1 million hectares of aromatic paddy cultivation in the Mekong Delta (MKD) provinces each year, which accounts for about 25% of the total paddy area. Understanding the overall efficiency of aromatic rice in VMKD becomes essential due to the potential development of both domestic and export markets for aromatic rice. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to examine how MKD's farmers produce aromatic rice and determine the factors determining its production efficiency. Primary data were collected through a survey of 247 aromatic rice cultivators. The non-radial data envelopment analysis, a slack-based measure (SBM), was employed to consider the overall efficiency and agrochemical overutilization of each rice farm. In general, aromatic rice production in the MKD achieved an overall efficiency of 63%. In this regard, the RVT variety has the highest SBM score at 0.72, while Jasmine 85 has the lowest SBM score at 0.61. The factors that contribute to household efficiency include obtaining a larger farm size, participating in cooperatives, and practicing eco friendly farming. In addition, aromatic rice producers still use much more than the required amount of inputs for production. The aromatic rice sector should follow climate-smart agricultural practices in order to comply with export standards. This includes a significant reduction in the use of seeds, agrochemicals, and water.