Technical efficiency of goat farming in the Western Mediterranean Region of Turkey by Stochastic Frontier Analysis

The purpose of this study was to determine the technical efficiency of goat farms in the Western Mediterranean Region of Turkey. The main material of the study constitutes primary data that were gathered in 2016 from 95 goat farms in the research area with face-to-face interview technique. Data were collected from 47 settlements for goat farmers using the stratified sampling method in the research area. In this study, Stochastic Frontier Analysis method were used for the data analysing. SFA TE Effects Model were used for the effects of socio-economic variables on technical efficiency. According to study results, the average technical efficiency score was found as 80%. Positive and significant correlation between meat production and the cost of veterinary, operating capital, the family labour, the marketing, concentrated feed per goat (TRY/goat) were found. The socio-economic variables of credit availability of small ruminant farms and education were found positive and significant. However, only grazing (grazing number/day) was found negative and significant. According to the research results, efficiency was found to be insufficient. It is possible that higher efficiency can be achieve the same amount of input.