TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF TANK CULTURE SYSTEMS IN PENINSULAR MALAYSIA: AN APPLICATION OF DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS

The demand for animal protein especially fish is growing rapidly perhaps due to rapid expansion of population, increased incomes, and changes in eating habits and life styles of consumers. Capture fisheries are currently overexploited and their yield has become stagnant over the last decades and, in some cases, has even declined. Nevertheless, aquaculture has the potential to meet these challenges if well practiced. The study therefore, aims to estimate Technical Efficiency of tank culture systems using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Additionally, it also investigates the determinants of technical inefficiency by employing a regression model. The estimated technical efficiency was 0.89, which means that the fish farmers can reach full technical efficiency through reducing their input usage by another 11%. Results indicate that farmer's experience, educational level, extension training, job status, and water management have positive and statistically significant impacts on technical efficiency. Therefore, increase in any of these factors will have a direct impact on technical efficiency.