Estimation of technical efficiency and output growth decomposition for small-scale rice farmers in Eastern India

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to estimate the degree of technical efficiency, determinants of technical inefficiencies and driving forces behind the production growth for a panel data set collected during the 1998/1999 and 2004/2006 Kharif cropping season, from 452 small-scale rice farming households in the Giridih and Purulia districts of Eastern India. Design/methodology/approach The estimations of technical efficiency utilize stochastic frontier production function with a sub-model of inefficiency effects at both aggregated farm level and disaggregated plot level where traditional varieties (TVs) and high-yielding varieties (HYVs) are differentiated. The output growth decomposition analysis identifies the main contributor to the total rice production growth. Findings The results indicate that the sampled farms are operated at moderate levels of technical efficiency. The production of HYV rice is associated with higher technical efficiency compared to TV rice. Farming experience, education attainment, landholding size, the share of non-agricultural income and the share of land in the lower terraces account for the differences in technical inefficiencies across the sampled farms. The decomposition analysis suggests that as technical efficiency decreased, technical change is the main source of production growth during the survey period. Research limitations/implications The small sample size applied in the analysis will result in an insufficient representativeness of the study area. Originality/value This paper fills the literature gap as estimations of technical efficiency that account for subtle differences in adopted rice varieties are still rare in India.

Participation in farmers' organization and production efficiency: empirical evidence from smallholder farmers in Bangladesh

“…For example, (Mishra et al, 2015) found a TE score about 57% for Bangladeshi rice farmers using a large sample covered 2000-2010, whereas (B€ ackman et al, 2011) and (Afrin et al, 2017;Azad and Rahman, 2017) found it to be 0.83 and 0.86, respectively. Similar to our findings, in Eastern India, (Wu, 2020) also found that the small-scale rice farms operate at moderate levels of TE, ranging 23-96% and 26-96% for traditional varieties (TVs) and high-yielding varieties (HYVs), respectively. The difference in the TE scores is likely to be attributed to various reasons, including the size of samples used, rice season and area considered and frontier models utilized.…”

Farm-Level Technical Efficiency and Its Determinants of Rice Production in Indo-Gangetic Plains: A Stochastic Frontier Model Approach

“…The Green Revolution brought new farming technologies to India's attention in the late twentieth century, which greatly enhanced agricultural production and reduced famine. After the Green Revolution, in the eastern rice-growing areas of India, the rate of dissemination of modern technologies was quite slow, which eventually resulted in reduced agricultural output in the region [6,7].…”

Sources of output growth in the countries of the Common Monetary Area and provinces of South Africa

“…The study by Wu (2020) showed moderate technical efficiency in farms in eastern India. Dumagan and Ball (2009) used Fisher and Törnqvist to study growth decomposition in the agricultural sector of the USA, and concluded that output growth was mainly due to the growth of TFP in the sector.…”