Analysis of frontier translog production function for estmating technical efficiency in rice farmers of canal irrigated systems in Tamil Nadu

The present study undertaken in Cauvery delta zone has estimated the resource use efficiency in rice production and has assessed the effect of farm specific socio economic factors affecting the technical efficiency. A stochastic frontier production function was estimated to determine technical efficiency of individual farms. The data were collected for two years from the Cost of Cultivation scheme of Tamil Nadu centre. The statistical Model specification test performed to revealed the superiority of the Translog production frontier functional form over Cobb-Douglas model. The results of Translog stochastic production function indicated that fertilizer, seed and labour hours significantly influenced yield of paddy. Moreover the marginal value product to input price ratios for seed at 2.369 indicated that it will be highly profitable to increase the use of seed. The study has revealed that the farm-specific technical efficiencies, most farms were in the efficiency range of 80–90 per cent followed by 90–100 per cent. The production elasticities indicate seed is the foremost important input followed by fertilizer. The returns to scale at 0.5144 would indicate the operation of decreasing returns to scale at the present level of technology and the need for breakthrough in technology by way of new varieties or management methods and research extension farmer linkage.