A comparative analysis of date farms performance in different types of oases in Tunisia

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Volume 75, Article 1

[Volume 75, Article 1]

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RACHED ZOUHAIR1¹

ALI CHEBIL²

SALAH SELMI³

Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique de Tunisie, Tunisie.

² Institut National de la Recherche en Génie Rurale Eaux et Forêts, Tunis, Tunisie.

³ École Supérieure d’Agriculture de Mograne, Tunisie.

Abstract - In Tunisia, date palm production is an important source of income for the farmers located in the major production regions in the southern Tunisia (Tozeur and Kebili). However, the average yield in this country is still low compared with those observed in the world. This work aims to study the economic and technical performance of farms in the Tunisian oases. The data used in this study were obtained in 2016 from 160 producers of dates in the main regions of production. The reconstituted costs approach was used to calculate the production costs of dates in the target regions. In addition, the Total Factors Productivity (TFP) and gross margin for each farms were estimated. The results show that economic performance indicators (production cost, gross margin and TFP) depend on the production region and farm sizes. The gross margin and the TFP are inversely related to the farm size.

Keywords: Production Cost, Gross Margin, TFP, Dates, Tunisia.