The production of tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) highlights the country among the largest producers in the world. Performance measurements provide conditions for improvement for fish farming, with regard to changes related to production systems, including maximum returns from fish production and applied labor. The objective was to analyze the technical efficiency and return to scale of tilapia farming in the most significant producing states. Data envelopment analysis (DEA) was used for a production cycle, using the DEAP 2.1 software with input guidance. The results showed that 28% of properties achieved maximum efficiency, with 89% overall efficiency. As for inefficient returns to scale, 72% were increasing, necessitating expansion of production. It is concluded that training and division of tasks, combined with management, enhance the activity in conditions of scale inefficiency.
Brazilian production of tilapia (Oreochromis sp.) was 550,060 tons in 2022, highlighting the country among the four largest producers, behind China, Indonesia and Egypt and tilapia already represents 64% of national production. The technical efficiency of the country’s main producing states was evaluated, focusing on returns to scale, with the purpose of identifying possible strategic actions for implementation in production systems.
This approach resulted in the equation SE = TECR/ TEVR, where SE is the measure of scale efficiency; TECR is the measure of technical efficiency in the constant return model (CCR), and TEVR is the measure of technical efficiency in the variable return model (BCC). Scale inefficiencies occurred when producers operated in the ranges of increasing or decreasing returns, that is, outside the correct production scale (efficiency = 1).
It is observed in Table 1 that, on average, in the CCR model they demonstrate that fish farmers can reduce the use of their applied resources by 10.6% without compromising tilapia productivity, whereas in the BCC model by 4.2%. Regarding average scale efficiency, there is the possibility of increasing their production scales by approximately 7%. There is a predominance of increasing returns to scale (> 70%) for inefficient fish farming units, inferring that the variation in inputs is smaller than the variation in outputs and some of the reasons why production technology presents increasing returns to scale would be the division of work and specialization, which can allow for efficiency gains.