Previous application of the stochastic frontier model and subsequent measurement of the performance of the crop sector can be criticized for the estimated production function relying on the assumption that the underlying technology is the same for different agricultural systems. This paper contributes to estimating regional efficiency and the technological gap in Norwegian grain farms using the stochastic metafrontier approach. For this study, we classified the country into regions with district level of development and, hence, production technologies. The dataset used is farm-level balanced panel data for 19 years (1996–2014) with 1463 observations from 196 family farms specialized in grain production. The study used the true random effect model and stochastic metafrontier analysis to estimate region level technical efficiency (TE) and technology gap ratio (TGR) in the two main grain-producing regions of Norway. The result of the analysis shows that farmers differ in performance and technology use. Consequently, the paper gives some regionally and farming system-based policy insights to increase grain production in the country to achieve self-sufficiency and small-scale farming in all regions.

中文翻译：

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挪威粮食主产区绩效的元边界分析

依赖于基本技术对于不同农业系统是相同的假设，对于估计的生产函数，可以批评随机前沿模型的先前应用和随后对作物部门绩效的测量。本文有助于运用随机的元前沿方法估算挪威粮食农场的区域效率和技术差距。在本研究中，我们将国家划分为具有地区发展水平和生产技术水平的地区。所使用的数据集是19年（1996-2014年）的农场级平衡面板数据，来自196个专门从事谷物生产的家庭农场的1463个观测值。该研究使用真实的随机效应模型和随机元边界分析来估计挪威两个主要粮食产区的区域级技术效率（TE）和技术差距比（TGR）。分析结果表明，农民的绩效和技术使用存在差异。因此，本文提供了一些基于区域和农业系统的政策见解，以增加该国的粮食产量，以实现所有区域的自给自足和小规模农业。