Resource use and technical efficiency of rice production in Manipur

Rice is regarded as the first cultivated crop in Asia as well as important food crop of India. The cost and return structure and technical efficiency in rice production has been reported in different regions as well as in the state of Manipur to show different regions have adopted the latest technology. Primary data have been collected from the sample rice farms with the help of pre-tested scheduled through personal interview with respondent farmers. Technical efficiency of individual farms has been estimated through stochastic production function analysis. The total cost of cultivation on small farms was much higher than the large farms. Imputed rental value for owned land was the major cost items for all the farms. On an average majority (40 per cent) of the rice growing farmers were operating at the technical efficiency level of (99-100) per cent in relation to frontier output level. Gross return as well as net return per hectare have been observed to be highest for category I followed by category II. Most of the farms have been observed to be potential to expand production and productivity, increasing technical efficiency as majority has been performing with increasing returns to scale.