Evading Farm Support Reduction via Efficient Input Use: The Case of Greek Cotton Growers

The present paper examines the importance that efficient resource use may have for cotton growers under the current EU policy regime. To that end, input-oriented technical and scale efficiency score for a sample of 172 cotton-growing farms are empirically quantified. The results suggest that cotton farms in the sample are not efficient mainly due to the nature of the policy regime governing the sector throughout EU. By becoming efficient, the co-responsibility levy will be reduced by 18.3% and farms may increase their profits by 50.1% on the average.