Efficiency in the agricultural irrigation unions: An investigation for Agean region

Developing countries where land and water resources hold an important place in the economy of countries like Turkey and to increase the contribution of agriculture to the national economy as a rational operation of irrigation facilities, and on the provision of continuity is of paramount importance. Also, it shows very significant reduction of groundwater and surface water resources in Turkey also brings still more important to ensure effectiveness and efficiency in water use. In this study, the technical efficiency levels of irrigation unions operating in Aegean region which has a considerable share in the Turkey's agricultural production, were investigated by using the methods of Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). According to the estimations obtained, the number of staffs and the volume expenses has positive effect on the irrigation rate. The effect of the expenses other than personnel expenditures, which constitute the majority of the machinery and equipment expenditures, on the irrigation rate is positive and significant. According to another findings toll collection rate does not seem to have a significant effect on irrigation rate. When the SFA efficiency scores obtained from the maximum likelihood method are examined, it can be said that the efficiency levels of the irrigation unions in the sample are generally high. According to the DEA efficiency estimates, significant differences are observed among the units. Accordingly, it should be kept in mind that different efficacy measurement methods can give very differentiated results about the performance of decision units.