Productivity and Resource Use Efficiency in Wheat: A Stochastic Production Frontier Approach

Farm level technical efficiency and its determinants in wheat production in the state of Bihar has been studied using stochastic frontier production function model. The average productivity of wheat was reported 28.43 q/ha which was below the national average of 30.33 q/ha during 2016-17. The resource inputs were found inelastic and not being properly utilized. All the resource inputs were found positive and significant at 1 per cent and 5 per cent level of probability except machine labour used which was negatively significant, indicating overuse of machine labour or costly machine labour. The mean input efficiency in production of wheat in the state was estimated to be 94 per cent, emphasizing that efficiency may be enhanced by 6 per cent. The factors influencing efficiency were identified as education, family size and landholding size. The mean technical efficiency was found to be 0.94 indicted that optimal and sustainable use of resource inputs may further raise the input use efficiency in wheat production by 6 per cent and consequently boost up the income of the wheat cultivators in the state

Resource Use Efficiency of Maize Cultivation in Bahraich District of Uttar Pradesh

Study on resource use efficiency in maize cultivation was conducted in Tejwapur block of Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh. Primary data was collected from 100 respondents including three categories i.e. marginal, small and medium sized sample farms. Purposive cum random sampling technique was applied to draw the sample of respondents. Personal interview method of data collection, tabular and functional analysis was applied to bring the study at final stage. Result of study revealed that maize production shows the stage of decreasing return to scale and MVP indicate further scope to invest on four factors included in the study to achieve the position of optimum resource combination and maximization of the profit

Analysis of Resource use Efficiency in Apple Production on Outer Himalayan Range of Chenab Valley

The present study was carried out in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir state with special emphasis on selected districts viz., Doda, Kishtwar and Rambam, as these regions had the highest area and production under apple crop. Both primary as well as secondary data has been used as per requirements of the study. A multistage sampling technique had been used for the present study. To study the functional relationship between yield of apple and the selected independent variables, Cobb Douglas type of production function in log linear form had been fitted to the collected data for marginal farms, small farms, medium farms and on all the farms put together. The analysis had shown that the co-efficient of determination (R2) indicated that 68.3 per cent, 71.2 per cent, 73.7 per cent and 75.5 per cent of the variations in the output of apple had been explained by the six independent variables included in the production function for the marginal, for the Small, for the medium and for the overall sample apple growers respectively. The analysis had also revealed that the sum of the production elasticities for the marginal farmers was 1.403, for the small farmers was 1.57, for the medium farmers was 2.53 and for all sample farmers put together it was 1.989 which showed operation of increasing return to for all categories of apple farmers. Increasing trend in returns to scale of apple suggested the planners to plan strategies for long run so as to safeguard the interest of apple growers involved in the production process

Resource use efficiency of US electricity generating plants during the SO2 trading regime: A distance function approach.

This paper measures resource use efficiency of electricity generating plants in the United States under the SO2 trading regime. Resource use efficiency is defined as the product of technical efficiency and environmental efficiency, where the latter is the ratio of good output (electricity) to bad output (SO2) with reference to the best practice firm, i.e., one that is producing an optimal mix of good and bad outputs. This concept of environmental efficiency is similar to that of output oriented allocative efficiency. Using output distance functions we compare three methods for the calculation of resource use efficiency, namely, stochastic frontier analysis (SFA), deterministic parametric programming and nonparametric linear programming. This paper reveals the strengths and weaknesses of these methods for estimating efficiency. Both SFA and linear programming approaches can estimate the efficiency scores. For plants in the dataset the overall geometric mean of the three methods for technical efficiency, environmental efficiency and resource use efficiency is 0.737, 0.335 and 0.248, respectively. The rank correlation coefficient between technical efficiency, environmental efficiency and resource use efficiency is 0.213, 0.617 and 0.877, respectively. The regression analyses of performance across plants shows units in phase I of the SO2 trading programme are negatively related to measures of economic and environmental performance. This suggests that the market for SO2 allowances, per se, may not be minimizing compliance cost. We also find that a decrease in SO2 emission rates not only increases environmental efficiency but also leads to an increase in resource use efficiency. This finding concurs with the hypothesis that enhancement in the environmental performance of a firm leads to an increase in its overall efficiency of resource use as well.Technical efficiency ; Environmental efficiency ; Resource-use efficiency ; Distance functions ; SO2 allowance program

Resource Use Efficiency in Poultry Production in Bureti District, Kenya

Poultry production is one of the most important economic activities to the smallholder farmers of Kenya. However, constraints are evident which have resulted in low production of poultry and poultry products to meet population demand and for socio-economic sustainability of the livelihoods. The objective of the study was to determine resource use efficiency, optimal production levels, production systems of small-scale poultry farmers in Bureti district, Kenya. Primary data were obtained using a set of structured questionnaires from 300 representative farmers drawn from the study area using cross-sectional sampling techniques. Data were analyzed by Cobb-Douglas production function. The results showed that the resources used in poultry production were underutilized while others were over utilized. The efficiency indicators for poultry feeds (0.0603) showed that poultry feeds were inefficiently used. Labour efficiency indicator (-0.091) showed that farmers were not only grossly inefficient in the use of the resource but also over utilized it while the efficiency indicator (60.86) for poultry equipment implied the resource was inefficiently utilized. It is recommended that farmers should use inputs more efficiently (particularly feeds which were being inefficiently utilized) by reducing their levels of employment.Economic Efficiency, Resource Use Efficiency, Small-Holder Poultry Farmers, Kenya, Livestock Production/Industries,

Resource Use Efficiency of Millet/Cowpea Intercropping in Niger State, Nigeria

The study examined the profitability and resources-use efficiency of millet/cowpea mixed farmers production in Niger state Nigeria. The primary data for the study was obtained using structured questionnaire administered to 80 randomly sampled farmers in Kotangora Local Government Area of Niger State. Farm budgeting technique and exponential production function were used to analyze the data. The results showed that the estimated gross margin, net farm income, gross ratio, operating ratio and returns on investment are N57,542.42 per hectare, N54,240.40 per hectare, 0.37, 0.31 and 2.15. The regression result shows that seed and family labour were statistically significant at 1% level of probability, while farm size and hired labour were statistically significant at 5% level of probability. The allocative efficiency results show that seeds, family labour and agrochemicals were under-utilized. Farm size and hired labour were over-utilized. Efficiency and productivity could be improved if the farmers use more seed, family labour, agrochemicals, less of hired labour and land.Crop Production/Industries,

Resource Use Efficiency Analysis for Potato Production in Nepal

Potato is one of the most important staple foods supporting food security and livelihood to millions of marginalized and poor farmers in Nepal. Generally the smallholders' farmers, especially those located in remote villages are inadequately informed about technical knowledge, inputs and efficient use of resources causing poor production and low productivity. Thus, the present survey aimed to examine the efficiency of resources used in potato production in Baglung District, one of the remote hilly place located in Central Himalaya. The total of 120 potato growing households was selected using simple random sampling technique from the two potato pocket in 2016. The regression coefficients of each inputs using Cobb-Douglas production function were estimated using Stata software. Our results showed that major inputs such as labor, bullock, Farm Yard Manure (FYM) and intercultural operations were overused and need to decrease in terms of cost by 109, 177, 51 and 185%, respectively for its optimum allocation. Similarly, seed was found underused and need to increase its cost by 70% for optimum allocation. We concluded that inadequate training, exposure, knowledge gap and extension service to farmers in study sites were the reasons that farmers were using their resources inefficiently. It is recommended that the farmers involved in potato farming in the surveyed sites should be provided with additional proper technical knowledge for optimizing the use of resources which would help to increase the production and return from potato production

Resource Use Efficiency in Soybean Production in Rwanda

Even though soybean (Glycine Max) is currently a minor crop in Rwanda, it is one of the crops that the government of Rwanda is promoting because of its high nutritional value, adaptability to the climate of the country, and its good response to organic and mineral fertilizer inputs. Since farm resources are limited in Rwanda, it is critical to devise ways of improving their productivity and use efficiency even in soybean production. This study used on-farm data from Kamonyi district collected during two agricultural seasons from September 2007 to July 2008 and identified key factors determining soybean production and resource use efficiency in soybean production. Cobb-Douglas production function was fitted. Results indicate that, with an elasticity of 0.46, plot size was the most important factor of soybean production. It was closely followed by intermediate inputs (fertilizers, pesticides and seeds), with a coefficient of 0.44. When intermediate inputs were decomposed, fertilizers with an elasticity of 0.062 appears to contribute more to soybean production than pesticides (0.057) and seeds (0.034). Technical inefficiency was responsible for at least 93% of total variation in soybean output among the survey farmers. The relative efficiency (allocative efficiency) of resource use, expressed as the ratio of marginal value product (MVP) to marginal factor cost (MFC), were 1.73 for soybean plot size, 1.36 for fertilizers, and 1.92 for pesticides. These indicate that too little of these inputs are being used in relation to the prevailing market conditions. Keywords: Soybean, Resource use, Efficiency, Cobb-Douglass production models, Rwand

Impact of alternate wetting and drying irrigation on rice growth and resource-use efficiency

Crop-based irrigationRiceFertilizersNitrogenRainCrop yieldPercolationSeepagePaddy fieldsExperiments