An economic analysis of production and technical efficiency of cotton crop in Haryana
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Date
2006
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Publisher
CCSHAU
Abstract
The present study was undertaken in Hisar and Sirsa
districts of Haryana state with the following specific objectives: i) To study
the economics of cotton production in Haryana, ii) to work out technical
efficiency in cotton production and iii) to identify the factors for variation
in technical efficiency in production among different cotton growers. The
study is based on primary data collected for the year 2003-04. Multistage
random sampling technique has been adopted to select the respondents.
The required data were collected from 160 cotton growing farmers from
eight randomly selected villages of both the districts. For achieving the
objectives of the study besides simple tabular analysis, averages and
percentages, stochastic frontier production function approach has been
used. The study revealed that almost similar cropping pattern was
witnessed on all the categories of farmers in both the districts. The
average yield of crops like wheat, barley, cotton, rapeseed and mustard
and bajra was relatively higher in case of small farmers followed by
medium and large farmers. The study further revealed that the per acre
gross returns worked out was highest i.e. Rs. 14531 on small farms
followed by medium farms (Rs. 14246) and large farms (Rs. 14106). The
net return also showed the same pattern. The benefit cost ratio was
greater than one on all the categories of farms which indicates that the
investment in cotton cultivation is economically viable. The most
important cost component was the rental value of land followed by plant
protection expenditure, irrigation expenditure, picking, fertilizer, seed,
FYM and preparatory tillage etc.
Among the variables considered for estimating stochastic
frontier production function, plant protection expenditure was found to
have the most dominant impact on the yield of cotton. The variance
parameter clearly shows that the observed output of cotton in the study
area is less than the potential output due to technical inefficiency. The
average level of technical efficiency was estimated to be 0.84 which
implies that, on an average the sample farmers in the study area
produced cotton upto 84 per cent of the potential frontier production level.
The production of the average farmer could be increased by 16 per cent by
adopting the technology followed by best practice farmer. The level of
technical efficiency increases with the increase in education level, contact
of farmers with extension scientists/agency (s) and percentage of irrigated
area to total area. The level of technical efficiency decreases with the
increase in age and number of working members in the family.