How inefficient are small-scale rice farmers in eastern India really?: Examining the effects of microtopography on technical efficiency estimates

We focus on the impact of failing to control for differences in land types defined along toposequence on estimates of farm technical efficiency for small-scale rice farms in eastern India. In contrast with the existing literature, we find that those farms may be considerably more technically efficient than they appear from more aggregated analysis without such control. Farms planted with modern rice varieties are technically efficient. Furthermore, farms planted with traditional rice varieties operate close to the production frontier on less productive lands (upland and mid-upland), but significant technical inefficiency exists on more productive lands (medium land and lowland).

Improved weed management for transplanted aman rice

Rainfed transplanted rice grown in the monsoon aman season accounts for more than 50% of the total area planted to rice in Bangladesh. Because of rising input costs, including labor, farmers are searching for ways to maintain income, by either increasing yields or reducing costs or both. On-farm trials in the High Barind Tract indicated that one-third of the farmers would be able to gain 0.5 t ha–1 or more additional grain by undertaking more intensive or timelier weeding than is usual under current management practices. Higher yields were observed on-farm from a preemergence application of butachlor(1.25 kg a.i. ha–1) compared with hand weeding twice. In Comilla District, trials of a range of weed management practices demonstrated that the yield advantage over the farmers’ practice, either one or two hand weedings, was on average 355 ± 18 kg ha–1 for Rifit (pretilachlor), 281 ± 39 kg ha–1 for Machete (butachlor), and 210 ± 34 kg ha–1 for Ronstar (oxadiazon), each followed by one hand weeding in aman 2003. Partial budgets calculated for inputs and returns showed that hand weeding was less profitable than herbicides in rainfed rice,incurring US$72 ha–1 lower return. Use of a push weeder plus one hand weeding was less profitable than herbicides, incurring$49 ha–1 lower return. To date, herbicides have been largely promoted for irrigated rice in Bangladesh. The trial results demonstrate that under rainfed conditions early in the aman season, water levels are adequate for herbicides to work effectively. The use of herbicides allows timely weed control when there is a shortage of labor and avoids transaction costs, such as the provision of meals and time needed to source laborers. Herbicides are likely to be adopted by growers experiencing labor shortages, particularly on large farms and for farmers seeking to reduce input costs. Sharecroppers and tenant farmers who pay rent are primarily concerned about obtaining a high aman yield, so innovations that raise aman yields (such as herbicides that will have a similar effect as a timely first weeding) are also likely to be adopted on sharecropped plots, even when costs are not shared between the landlord and tenant

Altruism, Cooperation, and Efficiency: Agricultural Production in Polygynous Households

Altruism among family members can, in some cases, inhibit cooperation by increasing the utility that players expect to receive in a non-cooperative equilibrium. To test this, we examine agricultural productivity in polygynous households in West Africa. We find that cooperation is greater – production is more efficient – among co-wives than among husbands and wives because co-wives are less altruistic towards each other. The results are not driven by scale effects or self-selection into polygyny. Nor can they be explained by greater propensity for cooperation among women generally or by the household head acting as an enforcement mechanism for others' cooperative agreements.altruism, non-cooperative behavior, household bargaining, polygyny, Africa

Effects of Position of Rainfed Rice Field in a Toposequence on Water Availability and Rice Yield in Central Java, Indonesia

The productivity of rainfed rice needs to be increased in order to support the Indonesian Food Security programs, especially rice. Rainfall is one of the main sources of the water availability on the rainfed rice field. This research was conducted from October 2000 to February 2001 at four sites in Central Java Province. The objectives of this research were to study thevariability of water availability that influenced by toposequen's position and to analyze the rice yields due to treatments on toposequence. This experiment was carried out in the farmers' field using “Group Balanced Block in Split-Split Plot Design” and Inceptisols soil order. Mainplots were the four positions in toposequence (top, upper middle, lower middle, and bottom), and the four villages were used as replication. The sub-plot wastreatments group and sub-sub-plot consists of group-1: farmer's practice and without weeding; group-2: farmer's practice without fertilizer and added recommended fertilizer. The research showed that rainfall affected the fluctuation of ground water table and standing water periods. The straw and unhulled rice/grain yields at the bottom position was the highest, and was significantly different from the top position of the toposequence, namely 7.1 and 5.6 t ha-1 for straw yield while 5.2 and 4.0 t ha-1 for grainyield. Without weeding, the straw and grain yields decreased by 1.0 t ha-1 (6.1 to 5.1 t ha-1) and 0.8 t ha-1 (4.6 to 3.8 t ha-1). While, without fertilization, the straw and grain yields were produced only 4.4 and 3.8 t ha-1. Straw and grain yields increased up to 7.0 and 5.1 t ha-1, respectively, when recommended fertilizers were applied