How inefficient are small-scale rice farmers in eastern India really?: Examining the effects of microtopography on technical efficiency estimates

Nobuhiko Fuwa (), Christopher M. Edmonds and Pabitra Banik
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Nobuhiko Fuwa: Agricultural Economics, Chiba University
Pabitra Banik: Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, India

No 79, Economics Study Area Working Papers from East-West Center, Economics Study Area

Abstract: We focus on the impact of failing to control for differences in land types defined along toposequence on estimates of farm technical efficiency for small-scale rice farms in eastern India. In contrast with the existing literature, we find that those farms may be considerably more technically efficient than they appear from more aggregated analysis without such control. Farms planted with modern rice varieties are technically efficient. Furthermore, farms planted with traditional rice varieties operate close to the production frontier on less productive lands (upland and mid-upland), but significant technical inefficiency exists on more productive lands (medium land and lowland).

JEL-codes: O13 O33 Q12 Q16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cwa, nep-dev and nep-eff
Date: 2005-05
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