Farm Level Environmental Efficiency in Summer Paddy Production and its Determinants: A Study of the Brahmaputra Valley in Assam

Abstract

The study estimates the farm-level environmental efficiency of 432 summer paddy farmers of the Brahmaputra valley of Assam using the translog stochastic frontier analysis. The estimates showed that the mean environmental efficiency for pesticides (0.423) was lower than the joint environmental efficiency for chemical fertilisers and pesticides (0.639). Again, the truncated regression model results indicated that education level, farming experience and access to extension services positively, and access to credit and engagement in tenancy negatively affected the environmental efficiency of the farmers. Therefore, access to extension services, the education level of the farmers and access to the credit needs improvement to increase the environmental efficiency at the farm level.