Technical efficiency of early variety country bean cultivation in selected areas of Bangladesh: a stochastic frontier approach

The present study was undertaken to measure the profitability and technical efficiency of early variety country bean cultivation in selected areas of Chatmohar upazila of Pabna district. A total of 60 early variety country bean-growing farmers were selected from three villages of Chatmohar upazila using a simple random sampling technique. Stochastic frontier production function was applied to determine the technical efficiency of the country bean growers. Technical inefficiency effects model was also applied to identify the demographic and socio-economic factors by which inefficiency effects are influenced. The study revealed that Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) was the highest (2.29) for large farmers followed by medium (2.27) and small farmers (2.21). The result of the Maximum Likelihood Estimates (MLE) showed that human labor, fencing and manure had significant positive impact whereas the irrigation and insecticides had a negative impact on the production of country bean. The results of technical inefficiency effect model showed that farmer’s age, farm size had negative impact while education, family size and farm credit had positive impact on technical efficiency. The inefficiency analysis results indicated that farm level technical efficiency ranged between 43.06% and 98.01% with a mean technical efficiency of 91.9% implied that there was potential to increase country bean production among smallholder farmers in the study area by 8.1% through efficient use of present technology. The main constraints to country bean (early variety) production were identified as- infestation of pest and disease, high price of inputs, paucity of quality seed and fertilizer, scarcity of human labor, lack of technical knowledge, limited access to institutional credit etc. Despite the constraints, there is a great prospect of early variety country bean production in the study areas. Country bean (early variety) production could be increased in a sustainable manner if farmers would be provided with government support regarding lower price of input, fair price of output, marketing facilities, training for farmers and farm credit at low interest rate, reducing the activities of syndicate of middlemen. Government should provide necessary support to the farmers for ensuring sustainable production of early varieties of country bean. Res. Agric. Livest. Fish. Vol. 10, No. 2, August 2023: 155-164