Efficiency of Permanent Crops: Bananas, Cocoa, Coffee in Ecuador. An Analysis During the COVID 19 Pandemic

Abstract

Ecuador is in a privileged climatological zone. It admits that in its territories permanent crops of high demand are generated both locally and internationally, as is the case of bananas, coffee, and cocoa. For this reason, it is important to control the resources involved in its production and verify the level of efficiency in order to maintain competitive standards worldwide. Thus, in the present study the technical efficiency of the aforementioned crops is calculated and analyzed in a period of great importance such as 2020–2021, since it significantly marked the world economies due to the COVID 19 pandemic. To calculate the efficiency, the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was used, that works with inputs and outputs, which were identified in the database of the Continuous Surface and Agricultural Production Surveys (ESPAC) report, generated by the Directorate of Economic Statistics and the Agricultural Statistics Unit of the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INEC). Determining production as the output variable and the main input variables: planted area, workers, fertilizers, and insecticides. The main results indicate that banana has not undergone significant changes in its production efficiency, while cocoa and coffee maintained lower levels of efficiency in 2020 compared to 2021 in most of the provinces of Ecuador where it is grown. Evidencing that the management of resources during the pandemic were limited and, in many cases, scarce.