Regional Analysis of Organic Agriculture, Husbandry, and Beekeeping Efficiency in Türkiye

Organic production enhances soil fertility, preserves biodiversity, and reduces pollution by avoiding from chemical pesticides and genetically modified organisms. Moreover, the increasing consumer demand for organic foods has encouraged producers to prioritize soil health and sustainable agricultural practices. The objective of this study is to analyze the development of organic agriculture, husbandry, and beekeeping, which contribute to biodiversity and ecosystem preservation through pollination, in Türkiye. Additionally, the study aims to offer insights for policy makers to establish a well-balanced production network. In this study, Türkiye's provinces were classified according to The Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS)-Level 1 (12 regions) and evaluated with Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Organic agriculture was evaluated Super Efficiency (SE) model while organic husbandry-beekeping was evaluated Lee and Zu model which is taken into account zero data. Moreover, to derive a final ranking of organic agriculture and organic husbandry-beekeeping, the Copeland method, based on superiority comparison and not requiring normalization, was used. This study is noteworthy as the first of its kind to comprehensively consider organic agriculture, animal husbandry, and beekeeping collectively.