Crop and soil specific mineral efficiency and productivity in Finland

This paper estimates a stochastic production frontier on experimental data of cereals production in Finland over the period 1977 –1994. The estimates of the production frontier are used to analyze nitrogen and phosphorous productivity and efficiency differences between soils and crops. The measures of mineral productivity and efficiency indicate that clay is the most mineral efficient and productive soil; silt and organic soils are the least efficient and productive soils. Furthermore, a positive correlation is found between mineral productivity and efficiency. Furthermore, the results indicate that substantial technical efficiency differences between different experiments prevail, although the data exclude management factors as a source of efficiency differences.