Impact of Socioeconomic Factors and farm Size on Wheat Productivity: A Case Study of District Peshawar, Pakistan.

This study investigates the impact of socioeconomic characteristics as well as the farm size of wheat productivity in district Peshawar. Wheat is the main staple food item of the country's population and the largest grain crop as well. Pakistan has been regularly importing wheat, except for the few years. This study is based on primary data collected in 2019 from district Peshawar.A sample of 200 (160 large and 40 small) wheat growers weretaken from twelve selected villages of Peshawar. An unpaired t-test was used to test the differences in the socioeconomic factors and farm sizes on the wheat production. Chow test were used for structural differences and dummy variable were introduced in the production function to test any significant productivity differentials (if any) between two farm groups. A significant difference was found awing to the socioeconomic factors of two farm groups. Moreover, the Chow F-Ratio confirmed the differences between small and large farms in terms of yield. The statistical value of dummy variable posted higher productivity for the large farms (almost 14%). Hence, results call for higher attention to be diverted to small farms as majority of land owners in Peshawar. The farmer's have small holdings and lack of adequate access to inputs, agriculture credit and extension services left them technically inefficient. In addition, it is suggested that government and private sector should initiate programs to educate and train the farmers in order to bring advance techniques or improve theirconventional agriculture practices to increase wheat productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]