Stochastic Frontier Production Function Research Articles

Differences and Factors of Raw Milk Productivity between China and the United States

In order to explore the differences in the productivity level and influencing factors of raw milk between China and the United States, this study uses the stochastic frontier production function and is based on the input and output of factors of raw milk in China and the United States from 2005 to 2020 to measure the impact of factor inputs on raw milk output and the output differences. The results of the study found that: the inefficiency term of raw milk production technology in China is higher than that in the United States; feed costs and fuel power costs have a significant positive role in promoting the growth of raw milk output in China and the United States; health and epidemic prevention costs, as well as maintenance costs, have significant impacts on the output value of raw milk in China, but they have no significant impact on the output value of raw milk in the United States. In terms of the contribution of each input factor, the contribution share of feed costs to the output value of raw milk in China is 52.53% and 25.74%, respectively, compared to the value of raw milk in the United States; The contribution share of technological progress to the output value of raw milk in China is 34.92%, and 53.77%, respectively, compared to U.S. raw milk production value. In order to narrow the productivity gap with the United States dairy industry, China’s dairy industry must pay attention to the moderate-scale breeding of dairy cows; develop an integrated production mode of planting and breeding; promote the development of grain to feed; accelerate the genetic improvement of dairy cattle populations; and learn from the pasture management experiences of foreign countries.

Spatio-Temporal Pattern and Spatial Disequilibrium of Cultivated Land Use Efficiency in China: An Empirical Study Based on 342 Prefecture-Level Cities

As an important resource for human survival and development, the utilization efficiency of cultivated land is directly related to national food security and social harmony and stability. Based on the stochastic frontier production function, this paper estimated the cultivated land use efficiency of 342 prefecture-level administrative regions in China from 2003 to 2019 and used spatial autocorrelation analysis and the Gini coefficient decomposition model to explore the spatial agglomeration and spatial disequilibrium of cultivated land use efficiency in China. The results showed the following: (1) Overall, the efficiency of cultivated land use in China has steadily improved since 2003, but the overall level remains low. The use efficiency of cultivated land decreases in the order of eastern, northeastern, western, and central regions, and the use efficiency of cultivated land in the central region increased the fastest. (2) From the perspective of the spatial dimension, the cultivated land use efficiency in urban areas of China has a multi-core structure of “high in the south and low in the north, high in the east and low in the west” and an obvious spatial differentiation pattern. At the same time, the spatial aggregation characteristics of cultivated land use efficiency have become more prominent with the passage of time. (3) There are obvious regional differences in cultivated land use efficiency in China, showing a downward trend as a whole, and the gap between regions is the main source of spatial non-equilibrium, followed by the super-variable density and the gap within regions. Revealing the temporal and spatial changes in cultivated land use efficiency is helpful to understand the present situation of cultivated land use and to formulating effective land use policies.

The Influence of Female Labor on Rice Farming Efficiency

Most of the women work in the informal sector, especially in the agricultural sector (61.80%), as well as the male workers (53.71%). This shows the high contibution and participation of women in agricultural activities.This study aimed to analyze the influence of female workers on the technical efficiency of lowland rice farming and to analyze the factors that influence it. This study used Translog Stochastic Frontier production function and was estimated using the Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) method. The results showed that lowland rice farming, both with male-headed and female-headed household, was not technically efficient (0.617 and 0.598) with significantly different efficiency between male-headed household and female-headed household. The Ministry of Agriculture is advised to increase the intensity of agricultural extension to farmers related to rice farming techniques to further improve rice farming efficiency.Keywords: Female labor, Rice farming efficiency, Translog stochastic frontier

Effect of Resource Productivity of Maize-Based Farmers on Poverty Reduction in South West, Nigeria

The ability of Nigerian agriculture to perform its role in the development of the economy has been on the decline in the last three decades. Therefore, the 2030 Agenda’s historic commitment to rid the world of the twin scourges of poverty and hunger cannot become a reality if nothing is done about improving resource productivity so as to reduce poverty. This article examined the effect of resource productivity of maize-based farmers on poverty reduction in South-West, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 180 respondents and data were collected with the aid of a structured questionnaire. The stochastic frontier production function, poverty index and probit regression model were used to analyze data from the study. Results showed that age, farming experience, cooperative membership, credit, extension visits, farm distance, and land ownership were significant determinants of efficiency of maize-based farmers. The poverty incidence, poverty gap and poverty severity were 42%, 50% and 11.2% respectively. Results further showed that efficiency and other variables were significant determinants of poverty among respondents in the study area. Policies that facilitate increased production of maize, increased level of education, increased cooperative membership, and access to credit are essential to help reducing poverty among maize-based farmers and among the rural poor in general. Keywords: Maize-based farmers; Poverty; Probit regression; Resource-productivity, Stochastic frontier analysis. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/13-20-09 Publication date: October 31 st 2022

Technical Efficiency of Rice Production in the Upper North of Thailand: Clustering Copula-Based Stochastic Frontier Analysis

This study examines the efficiency of rice production in Thailand, especially major rice, which is the main crop of farmers in all regions of Thailand and is still a pressing issue. Analyzing technical efficiency by using the appropriate analytical tools inevitably brings about determining the correct production efficiency measures. In this study, we applied the K-Means algorithm and copula-based stochastic frontier model to cluster farmer groups in order to find the different factors that impact the group, and to relax the assumption of the two components of random error, which is that they are independent to each other; the correlation of the two components of random error is also represented by the estimation of copula. The findings from the K-Means clustering algorithms applied in this study indicate that the production frontiers can be divided into two frontiers, with the number of farmers under the frontiers of such production differing from the number of farmers collected in each area. The production frontiers were obtained with 591 farmers under the first production frontier and 65 farmers under the second. In addition, the results reflected a correlation between the two error components U and V. This suggests inefficiencies and zero-mean, and that the symmetric error is not independent of each other. The findings from the application of the copula-based stochastic frontier production function models indicate that land, cost of chemicals, and labor inputs have significant positive effects on the mean output of major rice in both groups of farmers. Therefore, the results of this study indicate that the financial services in rural areas should be continuously promoted by governmental policy, particularly via agricultural loans, to rural people since the utilization of inputs affects the quantity of rice produced. Timely loans should be encouraged.

The Determinants of Farmers’ Technical Efficiency in Corn Production: Empirical Evidence from Jambi Province

The various levels of production will reflect uncertainty and risk factors in corn farming. The main problem in corn farming is that the productivity level is still low. This low level of productivity is due to farmers’ limited ability to allocate inputs such as seeds, fertilizers, and appropriate pesticides in peat land. This study aimed to estimate technical efficiency and its determinants in corn production in Jambi Province, Indonesia. In this study, 2020 corn planting season data were used. A sample of 120 corn farmers was taken randomly by the stratified random sampling technique based on cross-sectional data that were collected in 2021. The Cobb-Douglas stochastic frontier production function with incorporation of inefficiency effects was employed to analyze the data. According to the results, the technical efficiency rate ranged from 63.46% to 99.54%, with an average of 74%. The significant factors found to positively affect corn yield were seed quantity, potash fertilizer, labor, and corn variety. Meanwhile, nitrogen fertilizer and pesticide were negatively related to corn yield. The significant determinants of technical efficiency that were positively related to technical inefficiency included educational attainment, training, credit access, and household labor

Temporal and Spatial Evolution and Driving Mechanism of Urban Ecological Welfare Performance from the Perspective of High-Quality Development: A Case Study of Jiangsu Province, China

Based on the concept of high-quality development, this paper constructs an urban ecological welfare evaluation framework, measures the urban ecological welfare performance in Jiangsu Province from 2005 to 2019 using a stochastic frontier production function model, and conducts a spatial and temporal divergence feature analysis, combining a spatial panel econometric model and a threshold panel regression model to explore the spatial effects and mechanisms of urban ecological welfare performance. The results show that: (1) The urban ecological welfare performance in Jiangsu province has been increasing every year, and the spatial divergence between north and south is significant, with the overall trend of southern Jiangsu > central Jiangsu > northern Jiangsu. (2) The differences in urban ecological welfare performance among the three regions are gradually decreasing, with the high values expanding and the low values decreasing, and the urban ecological welfare performance in northern Jiangsu Province is gradually approaching that in southern Jiangsu Province, and the urban ecological welfare performance level tends to be balanced. (3) There are significant negative spillover effects of industrial structure, city scale, and economic development level on urban ecological welfare performance, as well as significant threshold effects of innovation level, industrial structure, foreign trade dependence, and economic development, and significant differences in the degree of influence of urbanization on urban ecological welfare performance under different threshold variables. (4) The urbanization and economic development levels are the fundamental factors driving urban ecological welfare performance improvement. Industrial structure optimization, city scale, technological innovation, and foreign trade dependence positively contribute to urban welfare performance, and government financial pressure constrains the performance level improvement. In the future, a long-term mechanism for high-quality green development should be constructed, spatial spillover channels should be continuously improved, welfare thresholds should be effectively circumvented, and urban ecological welfare performance should be promoted in a concerted manner.

TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY IN COWPEA (Vigna unguiculata) PRODCTION IN KANKE, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA

Cowpea farmers in sub-Saharan Africa obtain low yields; sole cropping system with the use of improved technologies can yield 1,500-2,000 kg/ha of cowpea. However, 200-500 kg/ha yield is obtained by smallholder farmers. It is a multipurpose crop and despite its importance, high level of inefficiency in its production persists. Therefore, the determinants of efficiency in cowpea production were analyzed; the decline in cowpea yield in the study area was attributable to several socioeconomic variables. Multistage sampling technique was used to select 70 cowpea farmers from the study area. Primary data was collected using structured questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and stochastic frontier production function were the analytical techniques adopted. The results indicated that the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents significantly affected cowpea production. The mean technical efficiency index was 0.59. Furthermore, the stochastic frontier analysis revealed that coefficients of farm size (0.297), labour (0.394), quantity of seed (0.433) and agrochemicals (0.057) were all positive and statistically significant. Also, the inefficiency model revealed that the coefficients of household size (-0.284), education (-0.493) farm experience (-0.402), extension contact (-0.45) and access to credit (-0.255) were negative but statistically significant Thus, the significant variables were the determinants of technical efficiency in cowpea production. The identified constraints adversely affected farm productivity and efficiency. Formation of cooperatives, adoption of measures that improve access to agricultural credit, agro-services centers, input supply, technology transfer and subsidies; extension services, information exchanges and market linkages are recommended to mitigate technical inefficiency in cowpea production among smallholder farmers.

Research on the impact of mixed ownership reform on innovation of state-owned enterprises: Evidence from Chinese industrial enterprises

This article focuses the research sample on Chinese State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs), using the Beyond-logarithmic Stochastic Frontier Production Function and the ordinary fixed effect model to examine, and evaluates the influence of mixed ownership reform on the innovation of SOEs from the perspective of incentive and constraint mechanisms. Our study investigates the impact of the corporate governance, policy burden, and environmental regulation. The main conclusions are as follows. First, mixed ownership reform can enhance the innovation capability of SOEs. Second, mixed ownership reform stimulates innovation of SOEs by optimizing corporate governance and reducing policy constraints on enterprises which regulate enterprise decision-making behavior. Third, the environmental regulation also affects SOEs’ innovation. This study can provide a reference for the government to further deepen the reform, optimize the living environment of SOEs, improve environmental regulations and promote the sustainable development of economy.

ANALISIS EFISIENSI PRODUKSI DAN PENDAPATAN USAHATANI PADI SAWAH DI KECAMATAN ABUNG TIMUR KABUPATEN LAMPUNG UTARA

This study aims to determine the level of production efficiency of lowland rice farming and lowland rice farming income. The study was conducted using a survey method. The research was carried out in Sidomukti and Bumi Jaya Villages, with the consideration that both villages had the same type of wetland, namely the largest type of irrigated paddy in 2018. The number of respondents was 75 paddy rice farmers selected using a simple random method. Data collection was carried out in March-April 2019. The amount of income was analyzed by calculating the R/C and the level of production efficiency was analyzed by the stochastic frontier production function. The results showed that lowland rice farming was not yet technically efficient, economically very efficient, and very efficient in price. The income of lowland rice farming in season I to cash costs is IDR9,653,092.11 per ha with an R/C of 2.66 and the income of lowland rice farming to the total cost of IDR5,647,645.87 with an R / C of 1.58 per ha meaning that farming is profitable to be cultivated. Key words: income, lowland rice farming, production efficiency

Analysis of technical efficiency of irrigated tomato production in North Gondar Zone of Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia

Ethiopia is a country with a total population of more than 110 million, of which about 80% of the total population is engaged in subsistence farming in rural areas. Although the agricultural sector plays a great role in the Ethiopian economy, it is characterized by low productivity due to technological and socioeconomic factors. Improving smallholder irrigated tomato production, and productivity would contribute to enhancing food security and alleviating poverty. Therefore, this study was investigated to fill this gap to analyze the technical efficiency of irrigated tomato production and its determinant factors in North Gondar Zone, Amhara Regional State, Ethiopia. Primary data were collected from 160 farmers selected using a multistage sampling procedure and analyzed using descriptive statistics, a parametric stochastic frontier production function model. The stochastic frontier and Cobb–Douglas functional form with a one-step approach were employed to analyze efficiency and factors affecting efficiency in irrigated tomato production. The estimated gamma parameters indicated that 0.69% of the total variation in tomato output was due to technical inefficiency. The means technical efficiency was found 60%, and about 6480.19 kg of tomato output per hectare was lost due to inefficiency factors implying there is a room for improvement in technical efficiency by 40% with the present technology. The Stochastic Production Frontier (SPF) result revealed that plot size at 1% and UREA at 10% probability level significantly influenced tomato production. The socio-economic variables that exercised an important role for variations in technical efficiency positively were the level of education, TLU, fair water distribution service and water in the morning, and in contrast watering frequency, marketing training, and credit were found to increase inefficiency significantly among farm households. To get better farmers' efficiency in the production of irrigated tomatoes continuous marketing training should be established and strengthening the available farmers training center (FTC) to improve farm productivity. The government and any concerned bodies should be built irrigation canals and other alternatives to reduce watering frequency. There should be a timely and sufficient supply of UREA to improve farmers’ efficiency in the production of tomatoes.

Resource use in sweet potato production in delta state, nigeria: a technical efficiency approach

Sweet potato is one of the major staple crops in Nigeria and most parts Africa sub-region. Its importance continues to rise due to increased urbanization. This increase definitely come with its share of challenges that need to be addressed. The study was conducted within the framework of the rural farming households who constitute the backbone of the Nigerian agricultural sector, producing about 80 per cent of the total national agricultural output. It examined resource use in sweet potato production in Delta state, Nigeria. The specific objectives are to determine the technical efficiency of sweet potato farmers, assess the factors determining the technical efficiency of potato farmers and to determine the technical efficiency distribution of sweet potato farmers. Multi-stage random sampling technique was adopted to select 120 respondents and stochastic frontier production function employed to realize the objectives. Result of analysis showed that the least technically efficient farmers have to increase their level of production given their inputs and technology to at least 68 % for them to operate at the production frontier while the most technically efficient farmers have to increase their production to at least by 4% for them to operate on the production frontier and be fully efficient with a mean technical efficiency of 0.71. The estimates of the parameters of the production function (sweet potato seeds, labour, fertilizers and agrochemical) were positive and significant at 5% and 1% levels respectively, while capital input was positive and not significant. Factors affecting technical inefficiency of sweet potato farmers among others included: age of farmers and farm size which were negative and significant, while household size, educational qualification, type of cropping and farming experience were all positive and significant. The following recommendations were proffered: sweet potato farmers should have access to improved sweet potato varieties, modern storage technologies, markets and extension services. Adequate financial assistance and credit facilities should also be made available to the sweet potato farmers to enable them expand their crop output.

Technical efficiency of onion production in Kebbi State: A Stochastic frontier production function approach

This study investigates onion producers’ technical efficiency level in Kebbi State. Purposive and simple random sampling procedures were adopted in selecting 210 onion producers using structured questionnaire from seven local government areas in the state. Descriptive statistics, gross margin and stochastic frontier production models were employed in describing and analyzing the data. The results showed that producers generated an average gross revenue and gross margin of ₦1,085,692.51 and ₦700,388.33 at farm-gate price, respectively. The coefficients of farm size (0.6779), labour (0.1700) and seed (0.01011) were significantly positive in influencing the onion output, while level of education and household size significantly increased technical efficiency of producers. The technical efficiency of the pooled sample ranges from 0.13 to 0.95 and the mean technical efficiency was 0.78. Production constraints recorded were; high cost of input, pest and disease attack, poor pricing and inadequate government support. In conclusion, onion is a viable agribusiness enterprise for wealth generation and reliable means of small producers’ livelihood and lucrative business for large scale producers. The study recommends the need to identify sustainable interventions through government/nongovernmental support policies to improve input supply system, encourage adult education vide extension service and strengthening linkages among onion producers.

Improving Rice Production Efficiency in Myanmar by Controlling for Environmental Production Factors

Rice is the dominant crop in Myanmar and central to the agricultural economy. To increase rice productivity, farmers’ production performance is vital. This requires adjusting the availability of physical production inputs in response to environmental conditions. Very few studies have focused on the effects of relevant environmental conditions in Myanmar, including the impact of weather shocks during the rice production. This study aimed to the improve rice production based on the present performance of rice farmers, while controlling the impact of adverse environmental conditions. Information on rice production was extracted randomly from in-depth interviews with rice farmers in the Ayeyarwady Delta region. The Cobb-Douglas stochastic production frontier function was applied to examine the effects of the underestimated environmental factors. Erratic rainfall and excessive temperature during early growth stage have a significant negative impact on monsoon rice productivity. During the 2018-2019 monsoon cropping season, different levels of yield loss due to weather shock negatively affected rice farmers’ production efficiency. Controlling the environmental conditions improved technical efficiency from 88% to 93%. Based on these findings, policy makers and stakeholders should invest in climate services development, thus enhancing farmers’ understanding of weather variability and upscaling the use of local climate adaptation strategies in accordance with the Myanmar Climate Smart Agriculture Strategy.

DETERMINANTS OF TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY AND PROFITABILITY OF ANCHOR BORROWER MAIZE FARMERS IN GOMBE STATE, NIGERIA

The study assessed the impact of anchor borrowers program on crop production in Gombe State, Nigeria. A total of 150 beneficiary farmers were sampled across the State and questionnaire were administered via scheduled interview using multi-stage, cluster, purposive and simple random sampling methods. The data collected were analyzed using stochastic frontier production function and gross margin analysis. The result on the socioeconomic characteristics revealed that most of the respondents were male (80.67%), married (79.33%) and experienced maize farmers (76.00%). The respondents were technically efficient with a mean level of 72.00% and sum of the elasticity estimates was found to be 2.1625 indicating increasing return to scale, the inefficiency parameters conformed to the a priori expectation having carried the expected negative signs. Sigma squared (σ2) was statistically significant at p <0.001. Gamma (γ) was found to be 0.89 and was significant at p <0.001. The study further revealed that maize farming in the area was profitable with a gross margin of ₦87,010.34/ha. The total revenue recorded was ₦267,543.12/ha, while the total variable costs was ₦180,532.78/ha over a total land area of 981.3ha. Profitability index was 0.33 and return on investment was 0.48. There was a moderate availability and accessibility to credit and inputs. Major constraints encountered include; untimely access to loan, bad road network, high cost of fertilizer and labor. It can therefore, be deduced that the program had triggered more farmers into production, even though their technical efficiency was below optimum likely owing to constraints associated with; access to credit and input, and also poor access to extension services. It was recommended that an effective extension service be put in place. Inputs and credit should be disbursed timely and monitoring mechanism should also be improved so as to reduce the tendencies of misappropriating resources meant for maize production to other personal needs.

ANALISIS EFISIENSI PADA USAHATANI JAGUNG DI KAWASAN AGROPOLITAN KABUPATEN CIAMIS

Corn is one of the food crop commodities cultivated in Ciamis Regency, one of which is in the Ciamis Regency agropolitan area. The differences of corn farming productivity at five locations in the agropolitan area which shows the use of production factors is not yet efficient. The research was carried out using a survey method on corn farmers in Panumbangan District which was taken as the research location intentionally (purposive sampling). The population size is 1,545 people and the samples are 94 people is determined using the Slovin formula. Analysis of technical efficiency were analyzed using a stochastic frontier production function, allocative efficiency were analyzed using a cost function where the data analysis used the Front4.1 application. Economics efficiency is combination between technical efficiency and allocative efficiency. The results showed the level of efficiency achieved in corn farming in the agropolitan area of Ciamis Regency were efficient (>0.70), with an average of 0.88 for technical efficiency; an average of 0.81 for allocative efficiency; and an average of 0.72 for economics efficiency

Assessment of technical, economic, and allocative efficiencies of shrimp farming in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

AbstractThis study applied a stochastic frontier production model to analyze the technical (TE), allocative (AE), and economic (EE) efficiencies of intensive shrimp farming households, and to identify socioeconomic and shrimp farm‐specific factors (farm size, labor, feed, seed, chemicals/medicine) that influence the TE, AE, and EE of shrimp production in the Ca Mau, Ben Tre, Bac Lieu, and Tra Vinh provinces of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The AE was calculated based on TE and EE. The stochastic frontier production and cost function model were used to evaluate the EE and TE at the shrimp farming household level. The results showed that the mean TE, AE, and EE of shrimp farming systems were 75%, 68.5%, and 61.4%, respectively. Age, gender, education, experience, cooperatives, and technical training significantly impacted the efficiency of shrimp production. The results suggest that shrimp farmers can improve shrimp productivity and EE by decreasing feed cost (FEE) and medicine/chemical cost (MED) of farm inputs. The study showed that shrimp farmers who participated in training activities, cooperatives, or management boards of aquaculture associations were more technically efficient than other farmers. The findings of this study provide essential information about the TE, AE, and EE of shrimp production, which can help local policy makers and shrimp farmers in the region to make better decisions on how to improve the EE and sustainability of shrimp production in the future. There is a need for recommendations on how to improve policies, technical guidance, and training courses on feed management and feeding practices, water quality, and disease management, to help shrimp farmers in the coastal provinces of the Mekong Delta to improve their shrimp production efficiencies in the future.

English

The need to improve the productivity and quality of pineapple produced to meet demand and supply with international standards necessitates exploring production potentials. So, assessing the technical efficiency of pineapple producers is essential to avoid waste of resources and above all to target advices for improving the productivity of the pineapple producers. Studies conducted on pineapple in Benin have paid less attention to the resource requirements and its determinants. This study estimated technical efficiencies of pineapple producers in Benin and identified some socio-economic factors which influence them. A random sampling was employed to select 253 producers in five districts of pineapple production in southern Benin. Stochastic frontier production function approach using a translog production function was used to estimate the technical efficiencies of pineapple producers, while the inefficiency model was used to determine the socio-economic factor affecting the technical efficiencies. The results showed that the level of technical efficiency ranged from 96.87% to 96.96% with a mean of 96.91%, which suggests that average pineapple output was 3.04% short of the maximum possible level. This implies that producers could still improve the technical efficiency by 3.04%. This study shows that market access, labor, land access, fertilizer access, credit access and soil quality could increase productivity of pineapple production if monitored. Government must take appropriate measures to technically support producers and hope for improved quality of pineapple meeting international standards. Key words: Stochastic production frontier, efficiency, management, pineapple, Benin.

Application Research of Fuzzy Control Comprehensive Model in Agricultural Economic Management

Agriculture is the basic industry of the national economy, and the transformation of agricultural economic growth mode is of great significance to ensure the supply of agricultural products and improve the quality of agricultural products. Therefore, it is the only way to solve this problem to change the way of agricultural economic growth through scientific and technological investment, industrial structure adjustment, and other methods. Based on the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation method, this paper analyzes various factors of agricultural economic development and establishes a multilevel fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model of the development status of agricultural economic system. The stochastic frontier production function model of the fuzzy control comprehensive model is applied to decompose the agricultural labor productivity, and the counterfactual thinking and distribution method are used to analyze the influence of these factors on the evolution of provincial agricultural labor productivity differences. The value inequality decomposition method measures the contribution of each factor to the provincial agricultural labor productivity difference as well as the contribution of exogenous explanatory variables to the provincial agricultural technical efficiency difference. It is concluded that the relative contribution rate of nonagricultural activities to the difference in agricultural technical efficiency is the largest, and the average relative contribution rate reaches 74%. The improvement of agricultural labor productivity cannot rely solely on the increase in the input of agricultural material factors, but should rely on science and technology.

Energy Use Pattern and Its Efficiency in Paddy Cultivation in Tamil Nadu, India

The purpose of this study was to identify the socio-economic characteristics of paddy cultivating farmers of various size groups selected from the sample; to examine the resource use pattern of paddy cultivating farmers of various farm size groups; and to evaluate the farm level technical efficiencies in the production of paddy in Thadappalli ayacut of Erode District in Tamil Nadu. The study was conducted in Thadappalli ayacut of Erode District in Tamil Nadu. The research was conducted solely on a representative sample of 150 paddy farmer households drawn from five different villages located within the Thadappalli ayacut in the Erode District. A straightforward proportion, the Cobb-Douglas type stochastic production frontier function model, was utilised in order to arrive at the conclusions. The findings of the study have policy implications because they not only provide empirical efficiency indicators that can be used to plan farm production but also help us identify the potential for crop production improvement across a variety of farming systems based on efficiency. In other words, the findings not only provide policymakers with a tool that can be used to plan farm production, but they also provide policymakers with a tool The findings of the study also provide insight into long-term techniques to improve production that do not require the addition of additional resources. Because education has a big impact on how well people can use technology, it is important to help farmers in the region get both formal and informal education. Keywords: Cost & Returns, Technical Efficiency, OLS, Stochastic Frontier Function