Wheat productivity, efficiency and sustainability : a stochastic production frontier analysis

The results of this study indicate that both wheat productivity and technical efficiency measures are positively related to farm size. This result is in contrast to the previous work using data from developing countries. Wheat yield is negatively associated with the area under rice crop, signifying a serious threat to the wheat economy of Pakistan. However, wheat yield does not show any significant relationship with area under cotton crop. The major factors that reduce farm level inefficiency are farmer's education, agricultural extension, access to credit and farm size. The factors that increase farm level inefficiency are farmer's age and farm-to-market distance. The results also show that the owner farm operators are less efficient than the tenant farmers. (Pak Development Rev/DÜI)