Avaliação da eficiência na produção de trigo no Brasil: aplicação da Análise Envoltória de Dados

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the efficiency of the main wheat producing regions in Brazil in relation to production costs in the 2010/11 to 2017/18 harvests. The research is characterized as quantitative, descriptive and applied, with the use of secondary data made available by CONAB. The sample was formed by the regions of Cascavel/PR, Londrina/PR, Ubiratã/PR, Cruz Alta/RS and Passo Fundo/RS. For the efficiency calculations, the Data Envelopment Analsyis (DEA) with input orientation was adopted. The output used in the DEA model was the average amount of wheat produced per region. Five inputs (fertilizers, agrochemicals, external transport, social charges and technical assistance) were defined. The results showed that the highest average costs of production refer to fertilizers and agrochemicals related to crop costs, and the region of Londrina in the 2011/12 harvest is the most technically efficient, occupying the first position in the normalized composite frontier (efficiency score equal to 1). On average, the total technical efficiency was 85%, in the evaluation considering three systems of planting applied in wheat crops (general evaluation). The mean scores of pure efficiency and scale efficiency were 94% and 90%, respectively, indicating that there could be better management of resources used in the production process. Finally, in the category evaluation, considering the system (PDAT), little variation was confirmed in the technical and scale efficiency scores reached by the DMUs analyzed in this modality.