Impact of Wheat Cultivation under Conservation Practices on Resource use Efficiency in Karnal and Kurukshetra Districts of Haryana

A study was conducted to examine the resource-use efficiency of wheat cultivation under conservation and conventional methods in Haryana. A sample of 120 wheat producers was surveyed in four villages in the study area during 2012–13. The allocative efficiency of labour and irrigation in wheat cultivation using zero seed drill indicated over-use of these resources. The allocative efficiency of wheat cultivation under conventional tillage system showed that labour-use efficiency was 0.83 and fertilizer-use efficiency was 0.53. The allocative efficiency of wheat cultivation with rotavator showed that fertilizer-use and irrigation-use efficiency were over-used. The estimated mean technical efficiency of wheat farms under zero-tillage was 96% in their use of inputs. The technical efficiency of cultivation by rotavator was found to be 95%, indicating that average return of wheat could be increased by 5% by adopting the technology more scientifically. The economic efficiency measure was 62%, 52% and 34% in zero, rotavator and conventional tillage, respectively, indicating that there was scope to increase the returns by 38%, 48% and 64%, respectively, with optimum resource allocation. The study revealed that the farmers were inefficient in using their resources.