Measuring technical and economic efficiency of double cropping systems in the southern Great Plains

Abstract

As a result of fragile soils and extreme weather events, crop production in the Southern Great Plains (SGP) is below its potential in comparison to other regions. For the period from 1960 to 2004, the SGP states of Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas ranked 46th, 48th, and 43rd among the contiguous 48 states in agricultural total factor productivity growth (USDA ERS 2010). Double cropping systems (DCS) are one intensification practice being evaluated for its potential to mitigate the adverse effects of rainfed monoculture agriculture with new cropping options and expand profitability for SGP producers. However, there is limited information on the technical and economic efficiency of DCS under different nitrogen application rates. Therefore, the general objective of this research was to identify the most technically and economically efficient system producers could implement in the SGP. Three systems were evaluated from 1995 to 2019: wheat-corn, wheat-grain sorghum, and wheat-soybean. The Environmental Policy Integrated Climate (EPIC) model benchmarked on small plot and field experiment data from trials in the SGP was used to estimate yields. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used to quantify the expected technical and economic efficiency of DCS under various nitrogen scenarios with the yields generated in EPIC. Results indicated that the technical efficiency of wheat increased as winter and summer nitrogen rates increased. Cost efficiency decreased as winter and summer nitrogen rates increased. Revenue and profit efficiency increased as nitrogen rates increased across all systems. The most profitable DCS include scenarios of high winter nitrogen applications to wheat within the wheat-corn and wheat-soybean systems most years. However, wheat-grain sorghum was found to have the highest profit efficiency during significant drought periods.