Impact of socio-economic factors on technical efficiency of paddy farms in Punjab

The present study was undertaken to examine the impact of socio-economic factors on technical efficiency of rice production in Punjab in 2011?12. The technical efficiency on the sample farms was estimated using Cobb-Douglas production function. The production of rice was positively related to the farm size as the regression coefficient of farm size came to be positive and significant statistically. The frontier production function indicated that the use of all the factors of production higher was than frontier level on the sample farms. This indicated that existing level of production could be achieved by reducing the input use. The technical efficiency analysis revealed there is ample scope in improving resource use efficiency. The relationship between technical efficiency and various socio-economic factors revealed that rice production was positively related with farm size, education, age, experience, extension contacts and percentage of good land and negatively related with fragmentation of the land.