Impact of Wheat Cultivation under Conservation Practices on Resourceuse Efficiency in Karnal and Kurukshetra Districts of Haryana

Abstract

A study was conducted to examine the resource-use efficiency of wheat cultivation under conservation and conventional methods in Haryana. A sample of 120 wheat producers was surveyed in four villages in the study area during 2012-13.The allocative efficiency of labour and irrigation in wheat cultivation using zero seed drill indicated over-use of these resources. The allocative efficiency of wheat cultivation under conventional tillage system showed that labour-use efficiency was 0.83 and fertilizer-use efficiency was 0.53. The allocative efficiency of wheat cultivation with rotavator showed that fertilizer-use and irrigation-use efficiency were over-used. The estimated mean technical efficiency of wheat farms under zero-tillage was 96% in their use of inputs. The technical efficiency of cultivation by rotavator was found to be 95%, indicating that average return of wheat could be increased by 5% by adopting the technology more scientifically. The economic efficiency measure was 62%, 52% and 34% in zero, rotavator and conventional tillage, respectively, indicating that there was scope to increase the returns by 38%, 48% and 64%, respectively, with optimum resource allocation. The study revealed that the farmers were inefficient in using their resources.