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Technical Efficiency of Commercial Stingless Bee Honey Production in Peninsular Malaysia

Norhidayah Che Soh, Nur Syahirah Samsuddin, Mohd Mansor Ismail and Muzafar Shah Habibullah

Pertanika Journal of Science & Technology, Volume 29, Issue 2, June 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.47836/pjssh.29.2.03

Keywords: Farm, inefficiency, slack, stingless bee, technical efficiency

Published on: 28 June 2021

The Stingless beekeeping project, a relatively new industry in Malaysia, has a huge economic potential because the production of stingless bee honey is low but the demand for this type of honey is slightly higher. This study was developed to measure the technical efficiency of commercial stingless beekeeping farms in Peninsular Malaysia by using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Ninety-two respondents were selected using clustered random sampling and they were personally interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The results showed that the average technical efficiency was at 75%, with a minimum of 21% and a maximum of 100%. However, 25% of the farms were found to be fully efficient. The output slacks were 24.7, revealing that the bee farms produced honey with a shortfall in outputs. Labour hours indicated the highest input slacks which was 457. Mean slack for farm size indicated that the farms should be reduced by 0.58 acre while for the total number of colonies, the value of slack indicated that beekeepers should reduce it by one colony. Determinants of inefficiency results indicated that bee flowers and agricultural extension were significant. In conclusion, the technical efficiency of commercial stingless bee honey production in Peninsular Malaysia is high, but efficiency and inefficiency factors should be of concern to improve the value of technical efficiency.

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ISSN 0128-7680

e-ISSN 2231-8526

Article ID

JSSH-6668-2020

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