FARM EFFICIENCY MEASUREMENT OF PADDY PRODUCTION IN NORTHERN SRI LANKA USING DATA ENVELOPMENT ANALYSIS (DEA) APPROACH

This study analyzed the production efficiency of paddy farms in Northern Sri Lanka using the Data Envelopment Analysis approach (DEA). Farm efficiency has been related to resource use efficiency and achievement of higher productivity. The aim of this study was to study the levels of production efficiency of small paddy farms, and to identify the impacts of land size and extension worker contacts on production efficiency. A total of 120 farmers were randomly selected in the Mannar district in Northern Sri Lanka. The DEA technique was used to measure technical/production efficiency and results were compared for land size and extension contact category of farmers. It was found that more than average of farms had low efficiency scores of below 0.5. Small farms and large farms had a significant difference in efficiency scores. Thus this indicates that there is an impact of land size on farm production efficiency and very small farms and also large farms are inefficient in paddy production the area. There was a significant difference in farm efficiency between farmers with extension contacts and otherwise. The study reinforced the role that can be played by extension workers in pushing the farm efficiency levels higher and helping in better resource use efficiency on farms.