Background: Potato is considered as staple food in Hill regions of Nepal. It is considered as a major crop (in cropping pattern) of the majority of the households in Bobang and Tara VDC of Baglung district. The potato produced in these VDCs has good market reputation and is the major source of income. There are very few research studies which have assessed the profitability of potato of these areas. So, this study was aimed to assess the profitability and productivity of potato in Baglung district of Nepal. Methods:Potato is the fourth most important crop after major cereals. The two VDCs (Bobang and Tara) under Baglung district were purposively selected. These VDCs are good in potato production as compared to others in the district. The pretested semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data. Households were selected using simple random sampling techniques. The respondents were interviewed using face-face interview method in the month of April 2016. Altogether, 120 samples (60 from each VDC) were selected and the data were coded and entered in SPSS software. The necessary result was obtained by analyzing socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, benefit-cost ratio and production function using SPSS, Stata and Microsoft excel. Results:The average productivity was found 9.89 ton per hectare (ha) in the study area. The low productivity was due to disease infestation on crop. The per ha total cost of potato production was NRs. 197,186 with the total income of NRs. 268,047. The cost of FYM (45.32%) was highest followed by seed and human labor. The per hectare profit from potato production was NRs. 70,861 with B/C ratio of 1.44. An increase in 1% cost of human labor, seed and FYM would increase the total income of potato by 0.075, 0.639 and 0.190%, whereas 1% increase in the cost of bullock labor and intercultural operation would decrease income by 0.015 and 0.047%, respectively. The return to scale was found 0.842 which indicates decreasing return to the scale. Conclusion:The per ha total income from potato was found NRs. 268,047 with B/C ratio of 1.44 in the study area. The low production and productivity was due to infestation of disease on standing crop. Technical and managerial skills on cultivation practices and provision of technical knowledge to control diseases as well as proper allocation of inputs and available resources would help to increase profitability and productivity of potato. It is suggested to use diseaseresistant improved varieties and follow appropriate recommended cultural practices.

The study aimed to analyze profitability and resource use efficiency of maize seed production in Palpa district of Nepal. Raosoft Inc. software was used to determine the sample size of 182 maize seed producers from the total 260 maize seed producers in the district. Data was collected using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire survey administered to the randomly selected samples. Results showed that the uses as well as cost of major inputs such as seed, labor, farmyard manure (FYM),and management/other cost including tillage were higher among small scale farmers compared to the large scale farmers. The average cost of production among small scale farmers was NRs. 94,195per hectare compared to NRs. 64,145among large scale farmers. A benefit cost ratio of maize seed production was higher for large scale farmers (1.12), which in case of small scale farmers was less than 1, i.e. 0.9. Hence, maize seed production was found profitable only for large scale farmers. Resource use efficiency analysis showed FYM, tillage and labor were overused. This suggests that the use of FYM, tillage and labor should be decreased by 665, 456 and 68 percent respectively. Similarly, cost on seed, chemical fertilizer and management/other were underused, hence, need to increase by 92, 69 and 97 percent respectively for the optimum allocation of resources. Overall, maize seed production is profitable but resources should be optimally utilized and should be carried on larger scale.

Maize is the second most important staple crop in Nepal. Its demand is rapidly increasing due to a growth in the poultry sector. The national maize yield is low, leading to insufficient domestic production and thereby increasing imports. Maize seed is considered as one of the crucial inputs in achieving the targeted yield growth, but usually is in short supply during the cropping season. Farmers are involved in maize seed production, which eases its supply. Thus, understanding the efficiency of maize seed production will have a direct impact on the efficiency of the country’s maize production. This paper aimed to assess the technical efficiency (TE) of maize seed production and the major factors affecting TE. Semistructured questionnaire survey was administered in June 2016 to 182 maize seed farmers selected randomly from a total of 260 maize seed growers in Palpa District, a leading maize seed producing district in the mid-hills of Nepal. TE is estimated based on the stochastic frontier production model, and the factors affecting TE are assessed using the Tobit model. TE ranged from 0.25 to 0.92 with an average of 0.71. This revealed the scope of increasing TE by 29%. TE in the study area is largely affected by the age and schooling year of household heads. Similarly, the experience of maize seed production, livestock holding, the share of maize seed area, seed source, and access to extension services affect TE. Hence, a focus on motivating experienced educated maize seed growers to expand the maize seed production area supplemented by a better seed source and extension services would contribute to improving TE.

This paper aimed to assess the technical efficiency of maize seed production and the major factors contributing on technical efficiency. Maize is the second most important staple crop in Nepal, but the average yield of maize is very low as compared to other countries having similar agro-climatic requirements. Inefficient use of resources had led to low yield in maize crop. The software Raosoft was used to determine the required sample size and total of 182 samples were selected using simple random technique in June, 2016. Stochastic production frontier model and Tobit model were used to derive the results. The average technical efficiency of maize seed production ranged from 0.25-0.92 with an average of 0.71which revealed the scope of increasing technical efficiency by 29 percent. The majority of the farmers (29.1%) were at higher technical efficiency level of 0.8-0.9 followed by 28.6 percent at 0.7-0.8 and 23.1 percent at 0.6-0.7. Age and schooling of household head, experience on maize seed production, area shared by maize crop and dummies variables such as livestock holding, source of seed and access to extension service had found significantly affecting on the technical efficiency level. For the least developed country like Nepal it would be better to use the available resources wisely and improvement of existing technologies would be more cost effective than that of discovering new technologies. The study recommended that the concerned organizations should focus on mixed agricultural farming system, access to better quality seed and provide technical knowledge which would help in improving technical efficiency.

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.