Cited by 27Oil Palm Production and SustainabilityEfficiency Analysis Using DEAAgriculture, Land Use, Rural Development

Technical efficiency and farmland expansion: Evidence from oil palm smallholders in Indonesia

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Dalheimer, Bernhard, Kubitza, Christoph, Brümmer, Bernhard·2022·American Journal of Agricultural Economics

Abstract

This study asks whether innovation in smallholder production reduces or accelerates land expansion. Even though innovation in agriculture has reduced land expansion globally, rebound effects can occur locally and often at the expense of vital ecosystem functions. In contrast to other studies that investigate rebound effects in response to technological innovation, our study focuses on technical efficiency, the remaining component of total factor productivity. We use a short panel dataset from smallholder oil palm farmers in Sumatra, Indonesia, and develop a two‐stage approach in which we estimate technical efficiency and determine its land expansion effect. Our findings suggest that technical efficiency and in particular land efficiency are low, indicating that 50% of the currently cultivated land could be spared. However, the land‐sparing effect of increasing technical efficiency is at risk of being offset by about half due to a rebound effect. To maximize the conservation potential from increasing smallholder efficiency, policies need to simultaneously incentivize well‐functioning land markets and stricter protection measures for land with high ecological value to mitigate local rebound effects.

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Authors
Dalheimer, B., Kubitza, C., & Brümmer, B.
Affiliations
  • University of Göttingen (DE)
  • German Institute for Global and Area Studies (DE)
Corresponding author
Dalheimer, Bernhard
Venue
American Journal of Agricultural Economics
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2021-10-11
Volume
104
Issue
4
Pages
1364-1387
ISSN
  • 0002-9092 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-8276
OpenAlex
W3205845300
Cited by
21
References
80
Citations by year
2026: 9 · 2025: 6 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2
FWCI
0.81
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • American Journal of Agricultural Economics (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Social Science Open Access Repository (GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • GoeScholar The Publication Server of the Georg-August-Universität Göttingen (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (192626868)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Oil Palm Production and Sustainability
  • Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Management Science and Operations Research › Efficiency Analysis Using DEA
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › General Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Agriculture, Land Use, Rural Development
Keywords
technical efficiency, land expansion, rebound effect, oil palm smallholders, agricultural innovation, land market, Sumatra, conservation potential

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