1Department of Economics, Sir M. V. PG Centre, Tubinakere, Mandya, University of Mysore.
2Asst. Prof. in Economics, G.F.G.C. M.H. Hally. Hassan
3Department of Economics, Sir M. V. PG Centre, Tubinakere CampusUniversity of Mysore
Energy has been considered as one of the factors in determining the efficiency of production in general and efficiency of growing sugarcane. It has been intuitively observed that energy is the major factors which significantly influence the sustainable agriculture process. The efficient use of energy will lead to sustainable and efficient agriculture development. Accordingly, the present paper estimated and analyzed the technical and energy efficiency in growing sugarcane in Hassan and Mandya districts by using primary data with the help of stochastic frontier model. It has found from the frontier results that out of 60 sugarcane growing farms, 01 is peer farm, 31 are catch-up farms, 15 are average farms and 13 are lagging farms. The peer has found in Hassan district. Catch-up farms are more in Mandya district. Average farms are more in Mandya district. Therefore, farmers in Mandya district have been proved to be efficient. It has been also found from the impact analysis that among the inputs only labour has made significant positive impact on technical efficiency of growing sugarcane. To be specific, increasing capital, materials and energy will lead to decrease in efficiency of growing sugarcane. Accordingly, unwarranted increase of capital, materials and energy usage will decrease the productivity of sugarcane, instead of increasing the efficiency. Therefore, there is need to decrease capital intensive mode of growing sugarcane and use of unwanted material usage like, fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides and others. At the same time, unnecessary increase of energy usage will also lead to decrease in the efficiency of sugarcane production. Hence, optimal use of energy is necessary for obtaining efficient level of sugarcane production. Accordingly, the farms both in Hassan and Mandya have been failed to appropriately use inputs to produce sugarcane. Therefore, there is a need to redesign the production mode to obtain efficient sugarcane production. Matter of facts, reduction in capital costs and material costs with appropriate usage of energy will result in better efficient sugarcane production.
