1National Centre for Agricultural Economics and Policy Research (NCAP), Pusa, New Delhi-110012
2Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bangalore 560005
3Indian Agricultural Statistical Research Institute, New Delhi 110012
The authors thank the referee for his comments.
The technical, allocative and cost efficiency of individual farms has been estimated in arecanut production in three distinctive regions of Karnataka for the production period 1999–2000 using the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)— a non-parametric linear programming approach. The per hectare yield has been found to be 8.37 quintals in Shringeri taluka and 22.78 quintals in Thirthahalli taluka. Human labour use has been recorded highest in Thirthahalli taluka with 250 mandays. The use of plant protection chemicals has been noticed to be highest in Shrinageri taluka (35 kg/ha) followed by Thirthahalli (11 kg/ha) and Holakere (7 kg/ha). The DEA analysis has shown that the mean technical efficiency varies widely between 69 per cent in Shringeri and 90 per cent in Thirthahalli talukas, which indicates that on an average, the output can be raised by 10–31 per cent without additional resources in the arecanut growing areas. The allocative efficiency has been recorded highest in Holalkere taluka. The results also show that through proper use of even the existing technology, the production of arecanut can be increased through concerted efforts.
