Productivity Difference in DSR and Non-DSR Farms: A Case Study of Punjab Agriculture

This paper has studied the efficiency level of Direct Seeding Rice (DSR) technology, by taking a sample of 80 farmers (40 adopters and 40 non-adopters) covering six villages, two blocks and two districts of Punjab and following data envelopment analysis approach. The study has found the mean average technical efficiency score to be 0.93 for DSR and 0.81 for non-DSR farms in basmati variety, which indicates that direct seeding of rice in the farms could reduce the use of inputs up to seven per cent, whereas, the non-DSR farms will have to reduce input-use up to 19 per cent to reach the optimum scale efficiency. The study has also revealed that in the case of DSR farms, 21.43 per cent of basmati growers and 23.07 per cent of non-basmati growers were operating in the region of increasing returns or in the sub-optimal region, whereas, in the non-DSR farms, only 11.11 per cent and 16.12 per cent of farms of basmati and non-basmati growers, respectively were found in the respected region. The important constraints in the adoption of DSR technology included non-availability of seed drill, high amount of unwanted plants and lack of awareness. The study has suggested that subsidizing the cost of direct seeding of rice per acre will increase the area under this technology, which has great potential for adoption in the study area.