Technical efficiency of Swiss dairy farms locat-ed in the mountain area considering both eco-nomic and environmental resources

Increasing the efficiency of the use of economic and environmental resources of Swiss farms is a priority of Swiss agricultural policy as part of the objective of improving the sustainable performance of the Swiss agricultural sector. In this paper we assess the long-run technical efficiency of the use of economic and environmental resources of a sample of 480 Swiss dairy farms located in the mountain area using the non-parametric Data Envelopment Analy-sis approach. In a second step, using a linear regression, we inves-tigate the determinants of this technical efficiency. The results of the regression performed show that farm size and the strategic orientation of farm activity have a much greater effect on efficiency than the characteristics of the dairy production system or dairy herd management. An increase in farm size and an increased ori-entation towards para-agricultural activities are shown to exert a strong positive effect on technical efficiency. Conversely, part-time farming turns out to have a substantial negative impact on the effi-ciency of resource use.