Gestão dos custos de produção : avaliação da eficiência em propriedades leiteiras no agreste pernambucano

Abstract

The objective of this work was to analyze production costs and profitability of rural dairy farms in the Southern Agreste Region of Pernambuco. Specifically, the group of farmers was characterized according to the zootechnical performance and economic indicators, we evaluated the technical efficiency in the companies (dairy farms) studied and we determined the reference indicators on the production systems, suggesting benchmark models for properties identified as inefficient. The operational cost of production and Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) were used as methods. The real characterization of the milk production systems brings several clarifications about the productive efficiency of the farms, in this point we tried to analyze the factors that, besides conditioning the milk production, are considered in the characterization process of the production systems. Efficiency measurement techniques can facilitate the exchange of technological and management information, allowing local and regional development. Through the zootechnical and economic performance coefficients that characterize the benchmark units, the other production units will be able to make comparisons and take the indicated indicators as reference point, in order to reach a better performance in the exploitation of the dairy activity on the region. The results found highlight the importance of reference performance measurement indicators when we considering the factors that are common to production systems and that can be associated to productive efficiency, since it generates more precise parameters for the activity. In general, farmers are unable to cover their costs in the medium and long term, and they suffer the impact of depreciation and family labor, investments hold high capital values, and household labor is present at every property. And, still associated to the drought, the producers experienced a period of decline in production, profitability and productivity. When we analyzed the period as a whole the best observations were from properties 4 and 7, and regarding the best references for inefficient producers, the observations 46, 115, 94, 96 and 67 were highlighted. The DEA technique proved to be efficient as a decision support tool in the dairy activity, the performance indicators selected by the model show the reality of the productive systems and identify the best practices for inefficient units. It is important to note that performance indicators and reference units are limited to the group studied.