Technical inefficiency of Vietnamese pangasius farming: A data envelopment analysis

Abstract

Vietnamese pangasius farming needs to produce efficiently to compete in world markets. This study investigates the inputand output-specific technical inefficiency of Vietnamese pangasius farmers. First, we used a Russell-type (input-output) directional distance function to estimate the input-and outputspecific technical inefficiency. Second, we applied a bootstrap truncated regression to analyze the factors influencing these technical inefficiencies. Results show that the main challenges for enhancing the performance of Vietnamese pangasius production are inadequate use of capital assets (inefficiency of 42%) and improper methods to achieve higher fish yield (inefficiency of 30%). Input-specific technical inefficiency (pond area and feed) is negatively associated with the experience and education level of pangasius farmers. Location of the farm in a saltwater intrusion area is positively associated with the inefficiency of producing fish. Outcomes of this study are useful to identify successful strategies to minimize the use of inputs while simultaneously maximizing fish production.

Performance of Fish Farms in Vietnam–Does Financial Access Help Improve Their Cost Efficiency?

“…First, farmers with more experience tend to perform better. This is not a surprise, and is in line with many other studies (Cinemre et al 2006;Iliyasu et al 2016;Kaliba and Engle 2006;Pham et al 2018). The consistent results across all three indicators or models in Table 3 confirm once more that knowledge is very important in agriculture (Nguyen et al 2019).…”

“…Since the DEA frontier is based on the observed DMUs, it does not require any a priori specification of the production function and is therefore flexible . The ability to handle multiple outputs also makes DEA more popular in the field of agriculture (Färe et al 1985;Mao and Koo 1997;Thiam et al 2001), fisheries (Oliveira et al 2010;Shen et al 2013;Zibaei 2012) and, increasingly, aquaculture (Iliyasu et al 2014;Oluwatayo and Adedeji 2019;Pham et al 2018;Sharma et al 1999;Sharma and Leung 2003). Sharma et al (1999) measured the DEA revenue efficiency of 115 fish farms in eight provinces in China for 1985.…”

“…To do that, they need to purchase fingerlings (x 1 ), purchase the feed (x 2 ), hire labor (x 3 ), hire or purchase machinery and equipment (x 4 ), and purchase fertilizers and medicines (x 5 ). These inputs are commonly used in the field of aquaculture efficiency (Iliyasu et al 2014;Iliyasu et al 2016;Pham et al 2018;Sharma and Leung 2003;Ton Nu et al 2018). The corresponding input prices of these variables vary widely between the maximum and minimum values (see Table 1), suggesting that cost efficiency analysis can provide more insights into the examined farms than the input-oriented approach.…”

“…Its counterpart, stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), is based on regression and thus can only deal with a single dependent variable or output (Bukenya et al 2013;Kim et al 2011). Most DEA studies on aquaculture farms analyze how efficiently the sampled farms transform their production inputs such as labor, feed or fingerlings into outputs such as fish yields or sales (i.e., technical efficiency) (Arita and Leung 2014;Kaliba and Engle 2006;Oluwatayo and Adedeji 2019;Pham et al 2018;Thiam et al 2001). In this sense, to improve their efficiency, aquaculture farmers can minimize the use of their inputs (given the same outputs), maximize the production of their outputs (given the same inputs), or try to do both.…”

An improved prioritization framework for selecting new finfish mariculture candidates for research and development in Indonesia

“…The competition revolves around a small suite of similar aquaculture products sold internationally by these countries (Little et al, 2018). For example, it is difficult for Indonesia to compete with Vietnam in marketing Pangasid fish; Vietnam has developed efficient production systems and has long-established market chains for this particular fish thereby restricting market penetration by other countries (Nguyen, Nielsen, Roth, Nguyen, & Solgaard, 2017;Pham et al, 2018). Another example is Thailand's dominance in shrimp production and export despite a long struggle with shrimp diseases (Subasinghe, 2017).…”