Evaluation of economic efficiency of sheep farming enterprises in kars province by data envelopment analysis

In this study, it was aimed to determine the economic activities of sheep farming enterprises in Kars province, Turkey by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). For this purpose, data obtained from face-to-face surveys conducted on 99 sheep farming enterprises in Kars Province were used. In the DEA applied to determine the economic efficiency of sheep enterprises, the Charnes Cooper Rhodes (CCR) was used according to the input-oriented scale. According to the study findings, the average age of the owners of the enterprises, all of whom were male, was 46 years, and their experience was average 9 years. It was determined that the majority of the farm owners (76.8%) were primary and secondary school graduates. It was determined that 67.7% of the enterprises were farming only Akkaraman, 3% were farming only Morkaraman, and 29.3% were farming both of the breeds. According to the DEA results used to determine the economic efficiency of enterprises, 41 enterprises (41.4%) were determined to be effective and 58 (58.6%) were determined to be inefficient. Consequently, it was concluded that inefficient enterprises need to reduce their input costs to become economically effective. In addition, it has been considered that it is very important for enterprises to make progress in the stages of obtaining, processing, branding and marketing high value-added products (milk/dairy products and meat/meat products, wool) from sheep farming to increase their income and profitability. Keywords: Data envelopment, Economic efficiency, Kars, Sheep farming.