Does Farmer s Identity Make a Difference in Efficiency in Dairy Farms Conducting Educational Tourism? Evaluation by Slacks-based Measure DEA Models

Whether farm management conducting tourism activity becomes more efficient or not is an important theoretical and empirical question for the promotion of tourism in agriculture. Thus, this study theoretically and empirically evaluated the efficiency of Educational Dairy Farms (EDFs) that provide educational tourism by DEA. The financial data were collected by the author s survey of these farms located around the Tokyo Metropolitan area. Based on the theoretical framework that stipulates that the efficiency of farm activity is determined by a farmer s identity, a bilateral slacks-based measure (SBM) model applied to empirically evaluate efficiency. The results revealed that those farmers that engage in processing milk products and direct selling have higher efficiency than those who do not. This is because having an enlarged identity that provides a wider perspective on farm activity enables these farmers to create demand and reduce marginal cost. This wider perspective was nurtured through the network of educational tourism activity. Thus, educational tourism activity by dairy farmers can nurture a new business opportunity and lead to efficient farm resource allocation. Acknowledgement : This study was funded by Japan Dairy Association (J-milk). The author is grateful for the cooperation from the Japan Dairy Council, Kanto Dairy Cooperatives and Chiba Dairy Cooperatives, and EDFs that cooperated for the implementation of this study.