Farm-size efficiency relationship in Punjab agriculture: Evidences from cost of cultivation survey

The study analyzes the resource use efficiency and indentifies the determinants of technical efficiency of paddy, wheat and cotton crops in Punjab state using plot-level cost of cultivation survey data. The study established positive association between farm-size and efficiency in crop production. To improve the efficiency or to reduce the stress on farmers, present study is providing a strong evidence that if farmers would reallocate their input use, save a reasonable amount of money without reducing their output. The results identify that farm size and number of schooling years of head had a positive and significant relationship with efficiency; whereas number of fragments, age of family head, diversification index and bio-abiotic stress negatively influenced technical efficiency. The average potential for improvement in technical efficiency i.e. the yield gap in production is estimated as 26.95, 24.02 and 7.26 per cent in case of cotton, paddy and wheat respectively without increasing the input use.