Technical Efficiency in Agricultural Production and Its Determinants : An Exploratory Study at the District Level

Given the importance of agriculture to the well being of a large percentage of Indias population, it becomes important to study how improvements can be made in the productivity of this sector. This study attempts to estimate the technical efficiency a measure of how well inputs are being used towards producing output of about 250 Indian districts in 1990-91. It employs the stochastic frontier function methodology. The results indicate that (i) the land elasticity is the highest followed by fertilizer; (ii) the mean efficiency of raising agricultural output is 79 per cent and therefore there is a scope for increasing output by 21 per cent without additional resources; (iii) states such as Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Rajasthan have the largest number of districts with below average TE and they stand to gain the most from policy interventions towards improving technical efficiency. The results further indicate that health, education, and infrastructure are powerful drivers of efficiency at the district level and the relative importance of the determinants of efficiency across districts depends greatly on environmental factors, such as agro-climatic zones, technological factors, and crop mix. The results highlight the need for developing policy strategies at a more localized level.agriculture, technical efficiency, stochastic frontier function, India

Combined spectral and spatial processing of ERTS imagery data

A procedure for extracting a set of textural features for ERTS-1 MSS data is presented. The textural features were combined with a set of spectral features and were used to develop a classification algorithm for identifying the land use categories of blocks of digital MSS data. The classification algorithm was derived from a training set of 314 blocks and tested on a set of 310 blocks. The overall accuracy of the classifier was found to be 83.5% on seven land use categories

Giant dipole resonance with exact treatment of thermal fluctuations

The shape fluctuations due to thermal effects in the giant dipole resonance (GDR) observables are calculated using the exact free energies evaluated at fixed spin and temperature. The results obtained are compared with Landau theory calculations done by parameterizing the free energy. The Landau theory is found to be insufficient when the shell effects are dominating.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Determinants of Efficiency of Commercial Banks in India After Global Crises

This study contributes to the bank efficiency literature by estimating the technical efficiency, pure efficiency, and scale efficiency of banks in four different ownership groups in India from 008-09 to 019-20, utilizing the DEA method and three alternative approaches to choosing inputs and outputs of banks-intermediation approach, value-added approach, and operating approach. It also uses the Tobit estimation procedure to identify the factors determining the variations in the technical efficiency of banks. Results indicate a high degree of inefficiency of several banks during the study period, and there is greater scope for improving their performances. Sizable scale inefficiency exists, and banks are likely to lose sizable output. The results also indicate that banks with a larger capital adequacy ratio, young banks, larger banks, or more profitable banks are more efficient. Foreign banks and nationalized banks are more efficient than private domestic banks. We hope that the findings of this study will be useful to international agencies and other stakeholders in evaluating and improving the performance of Indian banks

Crop classification using airborne radar and LANDSAT data

Airborne radar data acquired with a 13.3 GHz scatterometer over a test-site near Colby, Kansas were used to investigate the statistical properties of the scattering coefficient of three types of vegetation cover and of bare soil. A statistical model for radar data was developed that incorporates signal-fading and natural within-field variabilities. Estimates of the within-field and between-field coefficients of variation were obtained for each cover-type and compared with similar quantities derived from LANDSAT images of the same fields. The classification accuracy provided by LANDSAT alone, radar alone, and both sensors combined was investigated. The results indicate that the addition of radar to LANDSAT improves the classification accuracy by about 10; percentage-points when the classification is performed on a pixel basis and by about 15 points when performed on a field-average basis

Evaluation of Thermodynamic Parameters of Conduction Polymer in Solutions Using Ultrasonic Interferrometric Technique

The electrical conduction polymer Polyaniline (PANI) base is soluble in selected organic (polar) solvents. The PANI becomes conductive upon partial oxidation or reduction by a process commonly known as doping. The PANI base was doped by chemical method using perchloric acid (HClO4) as a dopant. The doped conducting polymer was dissolved in three selective organic solvents namely p-Cresol (PCL), Dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO) and 2-Chlorophenol (2CPL). The ultrasonic velocity values were measured for the polymer in solutions using fixed frequency (3MHz) continuous wave ultrasonic interferometer technique at three different temperatures. The related thermodynamic parameters were calculated and their variations with concentration have been discussed with a view to understand the molecular interactions of the conduction polymers in solutions. Hence the acoustic properties of doped PANI in solutions will provide possibly a new product ideas and benefits over the traditional polymers owing to its properties in solutions

Sustainability of marine fish production in Kerala-A Bioeconomic analysis

The study has been undertaken in Kerala State in lndia with an - overall objective of analyzing the bioeconomic conditions of commercially exploited marine fishes for assessing their sustainability in the context of existing management practices. Maximum Sustainable Yield, Maximum Economic Yield and open access levels of yield and effort were analyzed using Gompertz-Fox growth model. The study concluded that the fishing effort exceeded the ecanomically optimal levels and there is unnecessary wastage of money, manpow and fuel in the fishing industry. The study stressed the urgent need for cap&lr@ fisheries management in the State which at present follows an open access fishery where regulations exist only in the form of seasonal -. closure in the monwan seaso

Supply - Demand Analysis of fish in India

The economic growth, population pressure and changes in the dietary pattern have contributed to the increase in demand for animal origin foods in lndia. The fish prices had increased many times than all other food items over the years. An analysis of fish demand and supply situation in lndia is done and projections were made for the year 2020. Price and income elasticities of fish demand were estimated using exponential function. Export demand and tastes and preferences of consumers were not included in the demand analysis. The fish supply was projected using trend extrapolation method. Estimates of demand model showed that the household expenditure on fish in general as elastic. The study revealed that with the projected population and percapita income growth rates, fish demand in year 2020 will exceed the total fish supply from marine, inland and aquaculture sectors with the current production trend

Effect of recycling of seri-vermicompost on growth, yield and nutrients of maize (Zea mays)

Field experiments were conducted at Thalingipalayam block (Avinashi, block), Tamil Nadu (India) during kharif and rabi seasons of 2011-2012 to study the effect of recycling of seriwaste compost (organic manure) with other organics and inorganics on the productivity of maize crop. The experiments were laid out in randomized block design with three replications. Two source of organic manures, viz. seriwaste compost + animal and poultry wastes were imposed along with Nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Potassium (K) levels (150:75:75 kg/ha), viz. 100% of Recommended Dose of Fertilizer (RDF) (T1), 75% of RDF + 25% organic manure (T2), 50% of RDF + 50% organic manure (T3), 25% of RDF + 75% organic manure (T4), 100% of RDF+75% of organic manure (T5), 100% organic manure alone (T6) and absolute control (T7). Organic manures applied to crop of maize with different levels of NPK to all plots. The results revealed that 100% RDF + 75% organic manure were increased the growth and, yield attributes, yield and nutrients, which was followed by 50% RDF +50% organic manure with enhanced B/C ratio

Adaptive filtering of radar images for autofocus applications

Autofocus techniques are being designed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to automatically choose the filter parameters (i.e., the focus) for the digital synthetic aperture radar correlator; currently, processing relies upon interaction with a human operator who uses his subjective assessment of the quality of the processed SAR data. Algorithms were devised applying image cross-correlation to aid in the choice of filter parameters, but this method also has its drawbacks in that the cross-correlation result may not be readily interpretable. Enhanced performance of the cross-correlation techniques of JPL was hypothesized given that the images to be cross-correlated were first filtered to improve the signal-to-noise ratio for the pair of scenes. The results of experiments are described and images are shown