An Economic Analysis of Technical Efficiency and Constraints in Rice Farms Using Different Irrigation Systems in Tamil Nadu

Rice is the stable food in India, improvement in efficiency levels is one of the major means of sustaining the staple food production and thereby ensuring food security. This study was taken up to determine the technical efficiency and constraints faced by the farmers in rice cultivation under different irrigation systems in Tamil Nadu. It could be concluded that the mean technical efficiency was 0.76, 0.75 and 0.71 for canal, well and tank irrigation system respectively. This showed that in the study region, the efficiency of the farmers was almost same for all the three systems of irrigation. The results of the Garrett's ranking technique indicated that non-availability of fertilizers at the appropriate time, delay in getting subsidy for drip irrigation and fertigation systems and scarcity of irrigation water were the most important constraints in rice cultivation using canal, tank and well irrigation systems. Thus, productivity can be increased by the adoption of non-monetary inputs like timely sowing, maintaining optimum plant population, timely irrigation, efficient use of fertilizers and irrigation water, need-based plant protection measures and timely harvesting of crop.