Data Envelopment Analysis to Estimate Technical and Scale Efficiency of Farms in Periyar-Vaigai Irrigation System of Tamil Nadu, India

M Umanath

doi:10.17485/ijst/2013/v6i10.8

Abstract

The present study is focused to analyse the technical and scale efficiency of farms in overall production of crops in PeriyarVaigai irrigation system of Tamil Nadu. The input oriented Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) was applied to estimate technical, pure technical and scale efficiency of the farms. A three stage random sampling procedure was used to select 270 sample respondents. The results of the study showed that there exist potential for increasing the profit further by 43 per cent in the farm holdings by following the best-practices of efficient farms. The study also found that about 47 per cent of the farms were not operating at optimal scale or nearer to optimal scale. The findings also indicated that all the farm inputs were used excessively by the sample respondents. The findings of the study could be helpful to farming community and policy makers to undertake necessary action to improve the current level of technical and scale efficiency in the study area.Keywords: Technical Efficiency, Scale Efficiency, Pure Technical Efficiency, Constant Return to Scale, Variable Return to Scale, Input Slack, Data Envelopment Analysis.

Highlights

One of the main reasons for low productivity in agriculture all over the world is the inability of farmers to fully exploit the available technologies, resulting in lower efficiencies of production
With this end in view, the present study focuses on measuring the efficiency of farms in Periyar-Vaigai irrigation system
About 39 per cent of the sample farms were falling under the efficiency group with the assumption of constant return to scale (CRS), whereas sample farms falling under least efficiency group constitutes only 50.74 per cent of sample farms

Summary

Introduction

One of the main reasons for low productivity in agriculture all over the world is the inability of farmers to fully exploit the available technologies, resulting in lower efficiencies of production. The productivity can be increased through introducing new technologies, adoption of existing technologies and efficient use of available resources. Technical efficiency (TE) is an indicator of productivity differences across farms It may help in exploring the potentiality of the existing technology. Enhancing the technical efficiency at farm level is the key to meet the requirement of food grains for the growing population in near future. With this end in view, the present study focuses on measuring the efficiency of farms in Periyar-Vaigai irrigation system of Tamil Nadu state in India. The results of the study may help the policymakers in identifying appropriate policies and strategies to improve efficiency of farms

Methods

Findings

Discussion

Conclusion