TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF SUGARCANE PRODUCTION IN DISTRICT DERA ISMAIL KHAN.

This study aimed at investigating the technical efficiency of sugarcane production in district Dera Ismail Khan (D. I. Khan) using stochastic production function. The study used primary data collected from 100 respondents of sugarcane growers during harvesting year 2012. The tractor hours, seed rate, labor days, irrigation numbers, chemical fertilizer, farm yard manure (FYM) and herbicide were the variables for finding technical efficiency while age, experience and education of sugarcane growers were taken as the technical inefficiency factors. The results revealed that the elasticities of technical efficiency for tractor hours, seed rate, labor days, irrigation numbers, chemical fertilizer, FYM and herbicides were found 0.185, 0.102, 0.145, 0.093, 0.084, 0.073 and 0.05 respectively. All the variables of technical efficiency showed positive and significant effect on the production of sugarcane with the exception of seed in district D.I.Khan. The mean technical efficiency index was 0.77 while the minimum and maximum efficiency values were 0.57 and 0.91 respectively. The mean value suggesting that the farmer's output can be improved 23% through improved resource allocation. The factors affecting technical inefficiency showed negative relationship with inefficiency. The results further indicated that age, experience and education having positive relationship with production and play a vital role in the production of sugarcane. The study recommends that proper policies should be formulated to educate farmers through extension services that will reduce inefficiency in their operations, eventually it will lead them to get maximum returns from their scarce resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]