Resource use efficiency of natural farming systems in low hills of Himachal Pradesh

The present study aimed to investigate the resource use efficiency of natural farming systems in the low hills of Himachal Pradesh using the Cobb-Douglas production function. A sample of 120 farmers was selected using a simple random sampling technique. The regression coefficients of each input were estimated using Stata 13.1 software. The study revealed that the use of seed (5.03), natural plant protection (14.43) and labour (18.11) were found underutilized as the value of ‘r’ was more than one, whereas natural fertilizer (−11.62) was found over-utilized as the value of ‘r’ was less than one and needed to be increased 80.13, 93.07 and 94.48 per cent to produce at the optimum level of production. This might be due to the majority of the farmers being deprived of better extension services and lack of training for human capacity building. This study concluded that the resources should be used wisely to maximize returns. Government and other concerned stakeholders should give priority to providing efficient technical knowledge about good natural farming practices.