Impact of Economic Size on Farms Efficiency

Nina Koteva

Abstract: The research aim is to make assessment of the impact of economic size on the efficiency of farms on the base of analysis. The analysis of farms economic efficiency has been achieved for the period 2007-2016. The following basic economic indicators have been used: productivity, performance and profitability, of farms. The research is based on data from observed agricultural holdings, included in the Farm Accountancy Data network (FADN) and the following scientific methods have been used: comparative analysis, method of statistical groupings, expert assessment etc. Based on the analysis, generalized conclusions were made:
• The size of received subsidies shows a gained experience in the CAP support and national • complementary payments absorption from all the farms;
• The biggest farms with economic size over 500000 EUR realize considerably higher gross output, gross and net income, and average productivity as a result of large scale production and subsidies received rather than of more efficient production;
• The productivity per hectare and the profitability norm for the small farms from 2000-8000 EUR is higher than the rest of farms groups, as a result of the better ratio of economic results / investments, thanks to a flexibility in management, high degree of control of activity, strong motivation for the development of the holding;
• The achieved productivity increases with the increasing of farms economic size;
• The lowest activity per unit of input labour have the farms with economic size 2000-8000 EUR, due to the small-scale output and low investments.

Keywords: economic efficiency; economic size; farms; profitability; rentability

Date published: 2020-01-14