Analysis of ınput utilization efficiency in wheat production: the case of Turkey

Wheat production is an essential agricultural activity in the world and Turkey. In 2021, the world wheat production was realized as 771 million tons on 221 million hectares of land. Turkey had a share of 3.00% in the world's wheat production area, and 2.29% in the production amount. The most important condition for the competitiveness of enterprises in agricultural production is low production costs and efficient use of inputs. Unused input not only increases production costs but also reduces the competitiveness of the businesses. In this study, input use efficiency in wheat production was analyzed by means of the data obtained from 104 enterprises determined by the Simple Random Sampling Method. The average cultivation area of wheat production was 159.03 da, and the yield per unit area was determined as 555.00 kg/da. In the function of wheat production; the production elasticity coefficient of the fertilizer variable was found significant at a 1% probability level, and the agricultural pesticide at a 5% probability level. The sum of the coefficients of production elasticity (& sum;beta(i): 1.013) for the forecast function indicates increasing returns to scale. The highest marginal efficiency coefficient (2.34) in the equation was found as the seed variable. The research results revealed that none of the variables in wheat production were used at the economic optimum level.