While recognition of the positive influence of good agricultural practices (GAP) on reducing negative externalities due to conventional farming and providing more export opportunities is growing, there is some doubt about the effects of GAP on the economic performance of chili farms. In this regard, this study’s principal objectives are to assess the impact of GAP and to examine farm-specific and environmental factors regarding the technical efficiency (TE) of chili farms in Thailand. This study employed a stochastic meta-frontier input distance function to measure and explore the effects of farm-specific and environmental factors on TE using 2018 farm-level survey data from Thai chili farms. The sample of 100 farms includes GAP and non-GAP farms. The empirical results highlight three critical findings. First, there is confirmation that GAP positively influence the TE of chili farms. Second, family labor intensity and small farm size also positively impact the TE of farms. At the same time, completion of a technical training course positively affects the TE of non-GAP farms only. Finally, education, experience, training courses, and crop diversification negatively affect the TE of GAP farms only. Thus, policymakers need to focus on GAP adoption and farm-specific factors to promote the sustainable development of Thai chili farms.

To overcome the challenging food safety and security problem, in 2003, the Thai government initiated ‘Good Agricultural Practices’ (GAP) technology. This paper used a sample of 107 small chili farms from the Chiyaphoom province for the 2012 crop year, and data envelopment analysis (DEA) meta-frontier directional distance function technique to answer two questions: (1) Are GAP-adopting farms, on average, more efficient than conventional farms? (2) Does access to GAP technology affect farmers’ decisions to adopt GAP technology? We also developed an ‘indirect’ approach to reduce the potential sample selection bias for small samples. For the dry-season subsample, GAP farms were more technically efficient when compared with non-GAP farms. These dry-season non-GAP farms may not adopt the GAP method because they have limited access to GAP technology. For the rainy-season subsample, on average, GAP farms were more efficient than non-GAP farms at the 5% level. Access to the GAP technology is not a possible reason for non-GAP rainy season farms to not adopt the GAP technology. To enable sustainable development, government agencies and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) must develop and implement appropriate educational and training workshops to promote and assist GAP technology adoption for chili farms in Thailand.

The primary purpose of this study is to measure and investigate organic production practices affecting technical inefficiency of durian farms in Thailand. This study applies a stochastic frontier production function approach to measure farm-specific technical inefficiency using the 2011 farm-level cross-sectional survey data of Thai durian farms in a single estimation technique applying the maximum likelihood estimation method. The non-negative technical inefficiency effects are modelled as a function of farm-specific socio-economic, organic production practice and other production management factors. The empirical results suggest two important findings. First, there is confirmation that producer's education, the application of organic farm system and soil improvement practices influenced the technical inefficiency of durian farms. Second, the considerable variability of fertiliser types does not have different impacts on technical inefficiency in Thai durian production in different farms. The results indicate advantages in increasing years of schooling and using organic farm practices in Thai durian farms. Therefore, the policies on encouraging farmers to increase continuing education and suggesting the farmers to use organic production practices in Thai durian farms are recommended to increase technical efficiency in durian production in Thailand