Agricultural Productivity, Efficiency, and Rural Poverty in Irrigated Pakistan: A Stochastic Production FrontiermAnalysis

The main objective of this study is to estimate the input elasticities of production for poor and non-poor farms. The study estimates the stochastic frontier production function. The results show that the elasticities of production differ for poor and non-poor farms. The production elasticity of land is substantially higher on rich farms as compared to the farms belonging to poor farmers. This implies higher returns on investment on land by the rich farmers. The salinity/sodicity problem and the tail-end location of the plot adversely affect farm productivity and efficiency, particularly at the poor farms. Moreover, the average cost of the existence of technical inefficiencies is about 43 percent in terms of loss in output, with wide variations across farms ranging from 17 percent to 62 percent. The study further concludes that the least efficient group is not only operating far below the frontier but it also operates at the lower portion of the production frontier. Consequently, increasing access to the inputs would likely raise productivity and reduce poverty. The results imply that the land distribution using the notion of land reforms in favour of poor/small farmers in the presence of existing farm structure, rural infrastructure, and the weak farm-supporting institutions is not expected to raise farm productivity and reduce poverty among the poor farmers. The results call for a strong and active role of the government in close partnership with the private sector to initiate income-generating activities and inputs supply chains in the rural areas to break the nexus of poverty, land degradation, and low agricultural productivity.

Agricultural Productivity Growth Differential in Punjab, Pakistan: A District-level Analysis

The results of this paper show that the crop output increased at the rate of 2.6 percent per annum, dominated by the share of TFP growth. Wide variation exists among cropping systems as well as within the system both in TFP growth and output growth. The mungbean zone emerged as a leader in TFP growth with 3.6 percent per annum, followed by barani (3.2 percent), cotton (1.9 percent), mixed (1.1 percent), and rice (1.0 percent) zones. Rice, mixed, and cotton zones show a negative trend in efficiency, and the respective causes appear to be the dominant factor of land degradation sourced by the existence of nutrient-exhaustive cropping pattern, increasing problem of waterlogging and salinity, and the use of brackish underground water, plus the prevalence of curl leaf virus disease in the cotton zone during the 1990s. The other reasons could be the low literacy rate among the farmers in most of the districts of the latter two cropping systems. Besides, the majority of them are also characterised as having very low status in development ranking. The data also show that the area under rice and sugarcane, a highly water-intensive crop, had increased in most of the districts of mixed and cotton zones, during the 1990s instrumented by high instability in cotton output growth as compared to rice and sugarcane. The sources of instability include high volatility in prices, vulnerability of the crop to disease and insect attack, consistently rising production cost, incapacity of the farming communities to deal with the dynamism of technology in cotton production, and increasing waterlogging and salinity problem.

An Analysis of the Sources of Wheat Output Growth in the Barani Area of the Punjab

A time-varying efficiency effects approach using district level data of wheat in barani Punjab is used to disintegrate wheat output growth into different sources. The results show that wheat output grew at an annual rate of 2.71 percent under barani conditions, during the period of study. Technological change was the main driving force, sharing about 107 percent of this growth, while the changing inputs contributed negatively by about 10 percent and the efficiency contribution was less than 4 percent. On the other hand, irrigated output increased by about 4.7 percent per annum in the region; of which 65 percent, 1.3 percent, and 34 percent were attributable to technological change, change in efficiency, and increase in inputs. As regards the overall wheat output in the barani region of the Punjab, it grew at an annual rate of 2.97 percent—84 percent of which was shared by the barani lands and the remaining 16 percent was contributed by irrigated lands in the region. One common result which was observed under both barani and irrigated conditions was that the productivity growth (the sum of technological and efficiency change) showed declining trends exclusively due to negative trends in technical efficiency. Low relative profitability as compared to growing vegetables and raising livestock might be the main cause of this trend in the barani area: the same reason could also be a source of decline in efficiency. Rapid technological advancements require that farmers and administrators improve their management skills even to keep the productive efficiency at the same level. This is not possible without education and training along with a more effective flow of information [Lall (1993)]. Under these circumstances, the agricultural extension system has to play a greater role in assisting the farming community in the barani areas so as to adopt and use new technologies more rationally.

Restoration of Soil Health for Achieving Sustainable Growth in Agriculture

Total geographical area of Pakistan is 79.61 million hectares (m.ha.). Area under cultivation is 21.59 m.ha.; of which, only 5.34 m.ha. (i.e., 25 percent) is free from soil limitations and is fit for intensive agriculture [Mian and Mirza (1993)]. The remaining agricultural lands have various types of problems including formation of slow permeability, water logging, salinity and sodicity, and wind and water erosion. Thus, on an average, three out of four hectares of cultivated land in Pakistan are in poor health. This in turn is causing temporary or permanent decline in the productive capacity of the land. Therefore, poor soil health is posing serious threat to the sustainable growth of agriculture.

Efficiency and Sustainability of Micro Finance

The objective of this study has been to estimate the efficiency and sustainability of microfinance institution working in the South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and India. For the efficiency analysis we used non parametric Data Envelopment Analysis. We considered both inputs oriented and output oriented methods by assuming constant returns to scale and variable returns to scale technologies. While conducting DEA analysis using single country data we found that eight MFIs from Pakistan, six MFIs from Bangladesh and five MFIs from India are at the efficient frontier under variable returns to scale. The technical efficiency figures for Pakistan, Bangladesh and India are 0.395, 0.087, and 0.28, respectively, while average pure technical efficiencies for these countries respectively range between 0.713-0.823, 0.175-0.547 and 0.413-0.452. Three countries combine analysis revealed that there are two efficient MFIs under CRS and five efficient MFIs under VRS assumption in these countries. Out of these efficient MFIs three -Annesa, BARC and Grameen Bank, belong to Bangladesh, and two MFIs - Bodhana and Pushtikar, are from India. No MFI from Pakistan was found operating on the efficient frontier. The analysis further reveals that the inefficiencies of MFIs in Pakistan, India and Bangladesd are mainly of technical nature. The results have an important policy implication that in order to improve the efficiency of the MFIs there is need to enhance the managerial skills and improve technology. This could be done by imparting training. Since Grameen bank is the leading MFIs in the world we can adopt its model according to the country specific requirements. Particularly, the lagging countries like Pakistan and India require special training programmes in the field of microfinance management.microfinance institution (MFI), efficiency, Data Envelopment Analysis, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, South Asia

Recent Evidence on Farm Size and Land Productivity: Implications for Public Policy

Agricultural productivity is low in most of the developing countries including Pakistan. Moreover, slow and meandering agricultural growth is unable to keep pace with the fast and persistently growing population pressure in these countries. That in turn, has, continued to result in malnutrition and recurrent famines [Cornia (1985)]. Worse than this are the results of an ILO (1977) study, which has shown that food consumption inequalities have actually increased overtime not only in the food deficit countries but also in countries experiencing rapid agricultural growth. This points to the ever-hanging shadows of food deficiency and resulting malnutrition over the countries characterised by slow or negative growth in per capita food production and perverted income distribution [Cornia (1985)]. The only choice with these countries is to enhance food production and provide better access to food consumption for the poor masses. In order to achieve this objective policy-makers consider various options including increased use of modern inputs—mechanical and biological technologies, and removal or reform of the prevalent socio-economic power structure in agriculture that is considered to be an impediment to growth. It may not be desirable to apply these options separately in order to achieve the objective of reducing rural poverty [Cornia (1985)]. Growth in agriculture—that is sustainable and appropriate, is possible when all factors of production are accessible to all strata of the farming community. This is particularly so in the case of access to land. In this regard, land redistribution accompanied by increased input supply is the preferred policy option.

On Extended Quadratic Hazard Rate Distribution: Development, Properties, Characterizations and Applications

In this paper, we propose a flexible extended quadratic hazard rate (EQHR) distribution with increasing, decreasing, bathtub and upside-down bathtub hazard rate function. The EQHR density is arc, right-skewed and symmetrical shaped. This distribution is also obtained from compounding mixture distributions. Stochastic orderings, descriptive measures on the basis of quantiles, order statistics and reliability measures are theoretically established. Characterizations of the EQHR distribution are studied via different techniques. Parameters of the EQHR distribution are estimated using the maximum likelihood method. Goodness of fit of this distribution through different methods is studied

Cubic Rank Transmuted Modified Burr III Pareto Distribution: Development, Properties, Characterizations and Applications

In this paper, a flexible lifetime distribution called Cubic rank transmuted modified Burr III-Pareto (CRTMBIII-P) is developed on the basis of the cubic ranking transmutation map. The density function of CRTMBIII-P is arc, exponential, left-skewed, right-skewed and symmetrical shaped. Descriptive measures such as moments, incomplete moments, inequality measures, residual life function and reliability measures are theoretically established. The CRTMBIII-P distribution is characterized via ratio of truncated moments. Parameters of the CRTMBIII-P distribution are estimated using maximum likelihood method. The simulation study for the performance of the maximum likelihood estimates (MLEs) of the parameters of the CRTMBIII-P distribution is carried out. The potentiality of CRTMBIII-P distribution is demonstrated via its application to the real data sets: tensile strength of carbon fibers and strengths of glass fibers. Goodness of fit of this distribution through different methods is studied

STUDYING IN AUSTRALIA TO IMPROVE ENGLISH SPEAKING COMPETENCE: REVISITED

This study investigates Indonesian postgraduate students perceptions about their improvement in English speaking competence during their period of study in Australia. Statistical tests show that the students who had spent more than one year in Australia perceived their English speaking competence as higher than those who had stayed for less than a year. However, the respondents expressed uncertainty as to whether their English would improve, even if they were to extend their stay in this English speaking country because of their Indonesian circles. They believed that they have improved their confidence in speaking English because of their stay in Australia. Finally, learning from this study some suggestions for the students learning English in Indonesia are proposed