Abstract

Md. Mokidul Islam and D.C. Kalita

The study was undertaken to estimate the resource use efficiency of wetland rice cultivation in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya during the cropping season of 2010-11. Data for the study was collected from 120 wetland rice farmers through simple random sampling procedure with at least 20 farmers from each CD Block covering 20 villages including at least six farmers from each village. The Cobb-Douglas production function (monetary value) was used to measure the resource use efficiency of wetland rice farmers. Findings revealed that the wetland rice farmers were technically inefficient in the use of farm resources. The implication of the study was that technical efficiency in wetland rice production in West Garo Hills district of Meghalaya could be increased through better use of land, fertilizer and improved seeds. However, the values of the MPP showed that the farmers were technically more efficient in the use of land than all the resources for higher productivity of wetland rice. This implies that land, fertilizer, FYM/vermicompost and irrigation were under-utilized (>1) while all other inputs were over- utilized (<1). The adjustment in the MVPs for optimal resource use (% divergence) indicated that for optimal allocation of resources required about 33.87, 84.81, 83.18, 141.35, 166.23, 357.03, 190.52, 27.74, 135.32, 118.91 % increase in land, fertilizers, FYM/vermicompost, weedicides, pesticides, fencing, power tiller, irrigation, machinery/implements and marketing, respectively while seeds, human labour and bullock labour were over utilized which required 52.21, 89.11, 27.18 % reduction for optimal use in wetland rice production.