Efficiency evaluation of forest nurseries in north of Iran using Data Envelopment Analysis

The aim of this study is to measure the technical and scale efficiencyes of forest nursery in Guilan, Mazandaran and gorgan Provinces using data envelopment analysis. In this study, data of 12 forest nursery during of 4 years (2010-2013) with two inputs (fixed costs and variable costs) and two outputs (number of plant production and revenue) was collected from General Office of Guilan natural resources, Shafaroud forest Company as well as Forest Rangeland and Watershed Managements Organization. CCR and BCC models were used in order to investigate the technical efficiency. DRS model was used in order to investigate the rate of return scale in efficiency. Results indicated that Shanderman, Jokandan, Peseson and Ghrogh nurserys was completely efficient (efficiency score were 1 or 100%). Furthermore, nurseries such as Kani, Safrabaste, pelambara, Shahr posht and Lakans had the lowest efficiency, respectively. This can be due to the nature of the input models and optimal management of nurseries in the input and output.