Efficiency of government-supported horticulture: The case of Oman

This paper analyzes technical efficiency in Oman using the stochastic production frontier and the data envelopment analysis (DEA) methods. Different methods are used because the determinants of technical efficiency may be influenced by the method used and also by the assumptions (such as returns to scale) maintained. Results from the stochastic parametric frontier (SPF) and DEA-Charnes, Cooper, Rhodes (CCR) models show that the percentage of farmers that could qualify as technically efficient is as low as 17%. When the DEA-Banker, Charnes, Cooper (BCC) method was used, this percentage increased to about 46%. Factors such as off-farm income and soil quality were found to be positively correlated to productivity. On the other hand, small farm size and farmer's age showed a negative relationship with productivity. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd.