Impact of crop diversification on farm technical efficiency in Punjab agriculture
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Date
2021
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Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana
Abstract
The study has analyzed the impact of crop diversification on farm technical efficiency
in the agriculture sector of Punjab state. The study revealed that average value of the
Simpson index of diversification, indicating the extent of crop diversification was found
to be 0.487 implying that crop diversification in Punjab is low. Fractional logit and
Tobit regression models were used to identify the determinants of crop diversification.
The major factors positively and significantly influencing crop diversification were
cultivation as principal income, non-farm business sources of income, access to public
extension services and experiences of crop loss. The average farm technical efficiency,
estimated through the stochastic frontier production approach, was observed to be on an
average of 84 per cent implying that output can be increased by 16 per cent by
optimizing input use. Tobit regression revealed that factors negatively affecting farm
efficiency were the age of the household head and experiences of crop loss while
principal income source of the household as crop cultivation and access to public
extension positive and significantly affected the same. The instrumental variable
technique was employed to assess the impact of crop diversification on farm efficiency
as it corrects for endogeneity in crop diversification. The results revealed that the
adoption of a diversified crop portfolio by the farmers significantly improves technical
efficiency. Hence, crop diversification strategy should focus on crops that have the
potential to optimize input use and increase farm technical efficiency.
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Citation
Manpreet Singh (2021). Impact of crop diversification on farm technical efficiency in Punjab agriculture (Unpublished M.Sc. thesis). Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, Punjab, India.