TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF WHEAT PRODUCTION IN RAIN-FED AREAS: A CASE STUDY OF PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

This study has analysed the technical efficiency in wheat production in the rain-fed cropping zone of Punjab through stochastic Cobb-Douglas production frontier. It is based on the cross sectional data of the wheat crop for the crop year 2009-10, collected from a random sample of seventy farm households. The mean technical efficiency of wheat production was 47.1 percent in the study area. The results signify that farmers of the rain-fed zone of Punjab have a scope to increase productivity of wheat through technical efficiency improvements under the existing conditions of input-use and technology. The yield of wheat can be doubled through adoption of better practices of technology. Seed rate has contributed negatively and significantly to wheat production, indicating that there is possibility to increase wheat production by decreasing seed rate. Irrigation application to the crop has significant positive contribution to wheat production indicating that there is scope for increasing wheat production by improvement in moisture availability through better conservation of rain water or investment in water sources. The inefficiency in wheat production was due to sowing of poor quality crop produce as seed year after year and large operational farm size in Rabi season. On the other hand, tractor ownership was a technical inefficiency decreasing farm characteristic