Estimation of Farm Level Technical Efficiency in Maize Production at the High Mountain North Region of Pakistan

Gilgit-Baltistan’s economy is mostly based on subsistence crops production. The ecosystem of mountain is fragile and tends to be relatively low productive due to number of factors. Therefore, the present study was aimed to know the opportunities of productivity due to improving the technical efficiency of maize crop, and to determine the factors which influence maize production in high mountains of Pakistan. For this purpose, initially two villages one from District Nagar and other from District Hunza were selected with an aggregate sample of 112 maize crop growers. Both primary and secondary data were collected from different sources. To measure technical efficiency, the stochastic frontier production function along with technical efficiency model was employed. Data was analyzed through statistical software Frontier 4.1, because of its appropriateness in efficiency related assessments. Result shows that the factors of low yields of different peasants were due to inefficiency. The overall average technical efficiency of maize farmers was estimated 73.6%. It was inferred that the productivity can be enhanced by reducing the inefficiency from the ecological factors, peasants’ personal characteristics and farming conditions.