This paper investigates farm-specific technical inefficiency effects of paddy farms in Haryana using stochastic frontier production function, which incorporates a model for technical inefficiency effects including age, schooling, access to institutional credit, extension contacts and level of farm holding fragmentation. The study reveals that the traditional average response function was not an adequate representation of the data. The mean technical efficiency turns out to be 87%. Thus, yield of paddy in Haryana can be increased by 13% without increasing the level of inputs, if the inefficiency is reduced. Medium-size paddy farms are found more technically efficient as compared to their large and small-size counterparts. The results further indicate that technical inefficiency of paddy production is influenced positively by age and level of fragmentation, whereas negatively by education, access to institutional credit and extension contacts. This study suggests the need to promote young farmers as decision-makers along with raising the education level of farming community and also efforts should be made to further strengthen the extension contacts, access to institutional credit for farmers and to control the fragmentation of farm holdings.

Agriculture still continues to be the backbone of Indian economy with 22% share in the gross domestic product and providing employment to 64% population directly or indirectly. Rice is one of the major staple crops of the world. Despite the largest area under rice cultivation, India's share in the world rice production is just 22% and is placed second after China, which produces 31% of world rice. This reflects that rice production in India is lower even than the developing countries. In India, the share of rice in the total food grains production is about 42%, while the area of rice production is 24% of the total cropped area. Rice production in India has increased from 35 million tons to 87 million tons in 2003-04, as compared to 1960-61. In the Haryana state of India, the paddy production has increased from 223 thousand tons in 1966-67 to 2,790 thousand tons in 2003-04.

The production of rice has increased many folds in past 40 years and is among the largest producers in the world, but it is merely due to the larger rice production area and not due to increased productivity or efficiency in rice production. The production of rice in China is three times more than India. The growth of agricultural production depends on the productivity or efficiency of this sector. Increasing the efficiency of production is a very important factor of productivity growth and can be increased by using better technologies along with better management of inputs, which are at the farmers disposal. Under these circumstances, reducing inefficiency (increasing efficiency) is the best way to enhance productivity.

Technical Efficiency of Paddy Cultivation: A Socioeconomic Analysis of Haryana State,production, inefficiency, productivity, technical, fragmentation, credit, institutional, extension, compared, education, effects, economy, adequate, backbone, efficient, employment, community, agricultural, farmspecific, frontier, countries, counterparts, holdings, incorporates, Increasing, indirectly, cropped, influenced, decisionmakers, cultivation, management, Mediumsize