Estimation of Technical Efficiency in Tea Farms at Plantation Level: A Review

Abstract

The systematic literature review of 111 abstracts has been conducted to comprehensively compile the empirical studies of 21 complete text papers from all over the globe in context to estimation or determination of the technical efficiency (TE) at plantation level of tea production system (TPS), by adopting two methodologies viz., stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) and data envelopment analysis (DEA) during the period 2012-2022. Investigation from these empirical studies revealed that the average TE (TEmean) of tea growers (TG)s all around the globe computed by using both the approaches is around 67.98%, which showcased that the TGs have ability to increase the green tea leaf (GTL) production by 32.02% through better utilization of available resources and technology. The influence of various factors on TE of these TGs had contradictory outcomes, which broke new ground for future research. Computation of TE will enable an investigator to benchmark the best performing TGs in a particular area, which may be referred to by the inefficient TGs to enhance their performance.