A study of economic efficiency of Iranian farmers in Ramjerd district: an application of stochastic programming

An extension of utility-efficient programming to the non-linear discrete stochastic programming method was developed and used in the analysis of the economic efficiency of a sample of farmers in Iran. The results indicate that it would be feasible to increase substantially farmers' total net revenue by increasing their economic efficiency in terms of technical and allocative efficiencies. The study further suggested that risk aversion plays an important role in farmers' behaviour. The sample farmers are risk averse and hence are likely to trade higher expected profits for lower risk. Understanding this characteristic is important for interventions intended to raise farm productivity and efficiency.