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

Choudhri, H. (Harendra Pratap Singh )

English

Economic Affairs - Official Publication of AESRA

Economic Affairs, Vol. 64, No. 4, pp. 711-715, December 2019
DOI: 10.30954/0424-2513.4.2019.5
©2019 EA. All rights reserved
How to cite this article: Choudhri H.P., Singh G.P. and Supriya (2019). 
Resource use efficiency of maize cultivation in bahraich district of Uttar 
Pradesh. Economic Affairs, 64(4): 711-715.
Resource Use Efficiency of Maize Cultivation in Bahraich District 
of Uttar Pradesh
Harendra Pratap Singh Choudhri*, G.P. Singh and Supriya
Department of Agricultural Economics, N.D.U.A. & T. Kumarganj, Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, India
*Corresponding author: harendra1992chaudhri@gmail.com (ORCID ID: 0000-0001-9343-6273)
 Received: 15-06-2019 Revised: 22-10-2019 Accepted: 02-12-2019
ABSTRACT
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.
Highlights
 m Efficiency of different resource used in maize cultivation in Bahraich district of U.P. was studies.
 m Among different resource considered for study: use of manure & fertilizer and human labour were 
found efficient on all size of farms.
 m Marginal value productivity of all factors were also found more than one on all size of farms.
 m Thus, study show good scope to encourage the maize cultivation.
Keywords: Resource, efficiency, MVP, optimum, elasticity
Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the most important 
cereal crops in the world agricultural economy 
both as food for man and feed for animals. It is a 
miracle crop with very high yield potential. There 
is no cereal on the earth which has so immense 
potentiality and that is why it is called ‘Queen of 
Cereals’.
Maize crop is utilized in many ways like other grain 
crop. Over 85% of maize produced in the country 
consumed as human food. Several food dishes 
including ‘Chapattis’ are prepared out of maize 
flour and grains. Green cobs are roasted and eaten 
by people with great interest. The special variety 
called ‘Pop corn’ the grains of which are converted 
into the popped form is the favorites food for 
children’s in cities and baby corn variety is of great 
liking of people too. Maize grain contains about 
10% protein, 4% oil, 70% carbohydrate, 2.30% crude 
fiber, 10.40% albuminoides and 1.40% ash. Besides 
this, it is also a good source of feed and fodder for 
cattle, poultry and piggery. The green fodder can 
be fed to milch cattle to boost the milk production 
to a considerable extent; “South African Maize” is 
best suited variety for fodder. The crop has to be 
harvested when the grains are in milky stage, this 
variety is supposed to have Lactogenic effect hence 
specially suited for milch cattle. The digestability 
of maize fodder is higher than sorghum, bajra and 
other non-leguminous forage crops. Maize plant 
does not have any problem of hydrogenic acid or 
prussic acid production, hence if necessary crop 
can be harvested and fed to cattle at any stage of 
its growth, of course ideal stage of harvest for green 
Choudhri et al.
712Print ISSN : 0424-2513 Online ISSN : 0976-4666
fodder mid dough stage, when the dry matter 
content and digestibility are more desirable. The 
high carotene content of yellow maize is considered 
to be very useful in imparting yellow colour to 
egg york and yellow tinge to the milk. No other 
concentrate is yet known to substitute maize in this 
respect. Maize stands on second place among all the 
kharif crops and on third place after rice and wheat 
among the food grown crops.
Estimation of the technical efficiency of the farmers 
has revealed that an average sample of farms 
operate 23% below the frontier output levels. Hence, 
it has been observed that the maize output can be 
increased through adoption of proper technology 
by the farmers. This requires support from both the 
state government as well as the private companies 
(Anupam et al. 2005).
The Cobb-Douglas type of production function 
was used for functional analysis. The findings of 
the study showed that the male and female human 
labour utilization were 77.19 and 106.45 man days 
per hectare. The bullock labour utilization was 
10.68 pair days. The per hectare use of nitrogen 
was 110.80, 110.18 and 112.10 kg. per hectare in 
small, medium and large size groups, respectively 
(Navadkar et al. 2012).
Maize seed has established itself as a very significant 
component in maize farming system, and determines 
the cropping pattern of the predominantly peasant 
farmers. The result of the production function 
analysis shows that the double log functional form 
had the best fit to the data, that is R2 = 0.65, meaning 
that 65% of the variation in the output of maize was 
accounted for by the variables in the model. All 
the variables in the model had positive regression 
coefficients indicating direct relationship between 
each of them and output of maize. The result of the 
survey also indicated that men had more access to 
land than women, thus making them to be more 
involved in maize production in the study area 
(Onuk et al. 2010).
The returns of scale of the selected inputs were 0.72 
and 0.68 for Dinajpur and Panchagarh respectively. 
The technical efficiency was found on an average 
0.84 at Dinajpur and 0.80 at Panchagarh. It was also 
found that, farmers in the study area had scope 
to increase maize productivity by attaining full 
efficiency through reallocating the resources (Faruq 
et al. 2008).
Reviewing the importance of the crop, it seems 
necessary to study the efficiency of various inputs 
used in maize cultivation and find out the marginal 
value of productivity which may help in deciding 
the optimum level of resources which can support 
to maximize the net profit from maize cultivation. 
Thus after observing the importance of the crop 
in the cropping pattern a study was conducted in 
Bharaich district of Uttar Pradesh on resource use 
efficiency in maize cultivation with the objectives:
 1. To study efficiency of various resource used 
in maize cultivation.
 2. To study the marginal value productivity 
(MVP) of different resources.
METHODOLOGY
Sampling technique
Purposive cum random sampling technique was 
used to select the 100 respondents, from 5 villages of 
Tejwapur block of Bahraich district. For the further 
study all selected sample farmers were grouped in 
three categories of marginal, small and medium 
size of holdings. To justify the representation of 
all category of farmers “proportionate random 
sampling” technique was applied. A sum of 52 
marginal, 35 small and 13 medium sizes of sample 
farms were studied. Details of sampling are 
presented in Table 1.
Table 1: Village wise proportionate selection of 
sample farmers under different size group of farms
Sl. 
No.
Size of 
farms
Marginal
(below 1 
ha.)
 Small
(1-2 ha.)
 Medium
(2-4 ha.)
 Total
Name of 
Villages
P S P S P S P S
1 Maraucha 45 14 44 13 11 3 100 30
2 Singhi 22 7 13 4 3 1 38 12
3 Raipura 28 9 9 3 2 1 39 13
4 Aladadpur 19 6 21 6 9 3 49 15
5 Kirtanpur 52 16 28 9 18 5 98 30
Total 166 52 115 35 43 13 324 100
Note: P= Population and S= Sample.
Analytical tools
The data collected from the sample farmers through 
personal interview with the help of pre- structured 
Resource Use Efficiency of Maize Cultivation in Bahraich District of Uttar Pradesh
713Print ISSN : 0424-2513 Online ISSN : 0976-4666
scheduled were analyzed and estimated with certain 
statistical techniques like:
Average
The simplest and important measure of average 
which has been used into statistical analysis was 
simple mean and weighted average. The formula 
used to estimate the average is,
X
X
N
Σ
=
Weighted average = 
i i
i
W X
W
Σ
Σ
Where,
W.A.= Weighted average
Xi = Variable
Wi = Weights of Xi
Functional Analysis
To study the effect of various independent variables 
on the output, various forms of production function 
have been dealt. However, Cobb-Douglas function 
was found best fitted in the data; therefore it was 
used for measuring resource use efficiency.
The mathematical form of Cobb-Douglas function is:
Y = aX1
b1. X2
b2. X3
b3. X4
b4 .eu
Where,
Y = per hectare output (`)
X1= seed (`/ha)
X2 = Manure and fertilizers (`/ha)
X3 = Machinery charge (`/ha)
X4 = Total human labour (`/ha)
a = Constant (intercept)
eu = Error and
b1, b2, b3 and b4 production elasticities of the 
respective input variables.
Cobb-Douglas Production function in log form
Log Y = log a + b1log x1 + b2log x2 + b3log x3 + b4log 
x4 …….µ log e
This formula was used for estimating the parameters 
of the function based on sample data.
Marginal Value Productivity (MVP)
The marginal value product of inputs was estimated 
by following Formula:
( ) jj b YMVP X X=
Where,
MVP = Marginal value product of jth input
bj = Production elasticity with respect to Xj
Y = Geometric mean of the dependent variable Y
Xj = Geometric mean of the independent variable 
X
Having estimated the elasticity co-efficient, it 
is desirable to ascertain the reliability of these 
estimates. The most commonly used “t” test 
was applied to know, whether ‘bj’ is statistically 
significant from zero or not at some specified 
probability level.
‘t’ cal = .  of 
j
j
b
S E b
If calculated ‘t’ value is greater than table value of 
“t” at specified probability level at ‘n-k-1’ degree of 
freedom bj is said to be statistically different from 
zero.
F test was used to test the significance of the 
regression as a whole.
( )
( )
2
Regression mean square
Error mean sqaur
1
SSR
KF
e
n k
= =
Σ
− −
Where,
SSR = sum of square due to regression
Σe2 = sum of square of error term
MVP of jth input factor was tested using the 
formula.
‘t’ = MVPj/S.E. of MVPji
S.E. of MVPj = 
Y
X
standard erroe of bj
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The result of the present study as well as relevant 
discussion is presented under following sub heads:
Choudhri et al.
714Print ISSN : 0424-2513 Online ISSN : 0976-4666
Resource use efficiency in maize crop
Resource use efficiency, elasticity of production, 
return to scale and other qualities of interest in 
maize crop at different size group of farms are 
displayed in Table 2. High value of R2 of the fitted 
function indicates that sufficient and maximum 
proportion of the total variation in the dependent 
variable was explained by the included factors in 
production process.
The four variables viz., seed, manure & fertilizers, 
machinery charge and human labour explained 
88.90, 90.22 and 95.44 per cent variation in the 
dependent variable on marginal, small, and medium 
sized group of farms respectively.
It is indicated in Table 2 that manure & fertilizers 
(X2) was significantly associated with the dependent 
variable at 5 per cent level of profitability on 
marginal, small and medium size group of sample 
farms, where as another important factor of 
production i.e. human labour was also significantly 
associated with dependent variable at 5 per cent 
level of probability in marginal and small categories 
of farms and at 1 per cent probability level in 
medium sized group of farms. Rest of the two 
factors i.e. seed and machinery charge did not had 
any significant impact on maize production in the 
study area.
Returns to scale on marginal, small, and medium 
sized group of farms were found 0.839, 0.905 and 
0.985 respectively, which were less than unity. It is 
therefore, concluded that cultivation of maize crop 
is characterized by decreasing returns to scale on 
all size group of farms of the study area.
Marginal Value Productivity (MVP)of maize 
crop
It is clear from Table 3 that the MVP of seed, manure 
& fertilizers, machinery charge and human labour 
measure were considerably high on all size group 
of farms except human labour on medium farms 
and machinery charge on marginal farms. The MVP 
more than one indicates that there is chance to spent 
more on additional inputs to receive additional 
income.
Table 3: Marginal Value Productivity (MVP) of 
factors in production process of maize crop
Size 
group of 
farms
Marginal Value Productivity of input / 
factors
X1 X2 X3 X4
Marginal 1.412 2.897 0.979 1.302
Small 3.455 2.082 1.039 1.554
Medium 8.255 2.677 1.809 0.163
x1, x2, x3 and x4 stand for seed, manure & fertilizers, machinery 
charge and human labour (`) respectively.
It may be concluded that investment on these 
variable resources may help to attain optimum 
combination of factors of production in the process 
of maize production, which fulfills the aim of profit 
maximization.
CONCLUSION
Maize is a miracle crop and called ‘Queen of the 
Cereals’ because it can be grown in all three season 
of the year and equally useful for men and animals. 
Maize is rich in various nutrients and stand on 
second place among all kharif crops and on third 
place after rice. Seeing the importance of the crop 
this survey study was conducted in Bahraich district 
of Uttar Pradesh applying the purposive cum 
random sampling technique averages and functional 
analysis were used to analyse the data presentation 
of the result. Sample of the respondent were 
constituted with 52, 35 and 13 per cent of marginal, 
Table 2: Production elasticity of maize crop group on different size group of farms:
Size group of 
sample farms (ha)
Production Elasticity
Sum of 
elasticities 
return to scale
R2X1
(Seed)
X2
(Manure & 
Fertilizers)
X3
(Machinery charge)
X4
(Human Labour)
Marginal 0.051 (0.13759) 0.314** (0.07891) 0.133 (0.114) 0.340** (0.071) 0.839 0.889
Small 0.124 (0.181) 0.227** (0.074) 0.143 (0.170) 0.410** (0.117) 0.905 0.902
Medium 0.292 (0.123) 0.102** (0.077) 0.033 (0.072) 0.556* (0.136) 0.985 0.954
**Significant at 5% level of probability*Significant at 1% level of probability
x1, x2, x3 and x4 stand for seed, manure & fertilizers, machinery charge and human labour (`) respectively.
Resource Use Efficiency of Maize Cultivation in Bahraich District of Uttar Pradesh
715Print ISSN : 0424-2513 Online ISSN : 0976-4666
small and medium size group of farm. Result shows 
that among various factors considered for study (X2) 
manure & Fertilizers, and (X4) Human Labour were 
significantly and positively affecting the yield and 
production was found in decreasing returns to scale. 
MVP of most of the factors at different categories 
of farm were found more than one, which shows 
further scope of more expenditure on those inputs 
to harvest the most possible maximum yield.
Maize cultivation can be suggest as substitute of rice 
and wheat crops in resource scarcity condition of 
the day which mainly includes shortage of natural 
resource like land and water.
REFERENCES
Anupama J., Singh R.P. and Kumar Ranjit. 2005. “Technical 
efficiency in maize production in Madhya Pradesh: 
estimation and implications.” CAB Journal article of 
Agricultural Economics Research Review; 18(2): 305-315.
Faruq Hasan, M.  2008. “Economic Efficiency and Constraints 
of Maize Production in the Northern Region of Bangladesh. 
J. Innov. Dev. Strategy, 1(1): 18-32.
Hamsa, K.R., Srikantha Murthy, P.S., Gaddi, G.M. and Rashmi, 
K.S. 2017. Resource Use Efficiency in Cultivation of Major 
Food Crops under Rainfed Conditions in Central Dry 
Zone of Karnataka. Economic Affairs, 62(2): 321-325.
Navadkar, D.S., Amale, A.J., Gulave, C.M. and Nannaware, 
V.M. 2012. Economics of production and marketing of 
kharif maize in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra 
State. CAB Journal article Agricultural Situation in India; 
69(6): 309-316.
Verma A.R. 2007. Economic of production, resource use 
efficiency, marketing and constraints of maize in Tirba 
district Dhar of Madhya Pradesh. Agricultural Marketing; 
46(4): 13-22.
V. Karthick V., Thilagavathi M., Surendran A., Paramasivam R. 
and Balaji, S.J. 2015. Estimation of Resource Use Efficiency 
and Technical Efficiency of Small Onion Farmers in Tamil 
Nadu: A Cobb-Douglas and Stochastic Frontier Approach. 
Economic Affairs, DOI: 10.5958/0976-4666.2015.00057.1.



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

https://publication.economicaffairs.co.in/media/295584-resource-use-efficiency-of-maize-cultiva-9e0ea31f.pdf

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

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Economic Affairs - Official Publication of AESRA