Technical efficiency of Mountain Agriculture: A comparison of Italy and France based on FADN Data[L’Efficienza tecnica delle aziende agricole di montagna: analisi dei dati RICA e confronto fra montagna Italiana e Francese]

The Farm Accountancy Data Network (FADN) of the European Union was established with the Council Regulation 79/65, repealed by the Regulation 09/1217. The FADN system gathers accountancy data from farms with the aim of determining their incomes and making business analyses of agricultural holdings possible. Today, FADN fulfils the role of a guideline and reference point for agricultural accounting in Europe, by doing a microeconomic analysis of agricultural activities of different farm types, size and regions. FADN can thus be considered one of the most important sources of statistics available in the European Union. In this work FADN data are used to make a preliminary analysis of technical efficiency between Italian and French dairy farms situated in the Alps. More specifically the comparison is made between Valle d'Aosta and the region of Rhône-Alpes and Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. The evaluation is made in the period 1997-2006 using FADN data. Efficiency scores and ratios are calculated using the non parametric approach of DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis). The samples are selected on the basis of the value of milk output in total output (more than 70%). Results indicates that Italian dairy farms are less efficient on average than French farms with respect the single frontier but are more efficient with respect the common frontier. So, there is an efficiency differential and a productive gap between the two regions. This can be explained considering the different structure of the farms but could be further investigated considering allocative and economic efficiency on the basis of input and output prices. Further investigations will be made to analyse allocative and economic efficiency and to investigate the determinants of the different efficiency scores in both countries. This work is a part of FACEPA project (Farm Accountancy Cost Estimation and Policy Analysis of European Agriculture), funded from the European Community's Seventh Framework Program (FP7/2007-2013).