Indian Journal of Extension Education

This study attempts to find out the current levels of efficiency of selected vegetable farmers in Haryana. Both technical and allocative efficiencies were analyzed and compared. One hundred twenty farmers were surveyed in three districts of Haryana for the 2014-15 crop season. Cobb-Douglas and stochastic frontier production functions were used to assess technical, allocative and economic efficiency in different varieties of carrot and cauliflower cultivation. The allocative efficiency of carrot cultivation of the Pusa Rudhira variety has shown that the ratios (MVP/MFC) for labour (0.014), irrigation (0.004) and seed (0.014) were less than unity which indicates overuse of these resources and the additional one rupee invested in these inputs is not economical since the additional revenue obtained is not adequate to cover the additional cost incurred. The estimated mean technical efficiency of a Pusa Rudhira variety of farmers is 0.93, indicating 93 per cent efficiency in their use of production inputs and the efficiency level varies across all production units ranging from 46.60per cent to 97.02per cent. Overall, the economic efficiency of farmers is moderate (0.42) and there is scope for increasing returns with an optimum allocation of resources. Major constraints faced by the vegetable growers were the non-availability of labour, followed by the high cost of labour, non-availability of seed, non-availability of credit and lack of irrigation facilities.