IJSR - INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH 21 Volume : 2 | Issue : 12 | December 2013 • ISSN No 2277 - 8179 Research Paper Agriculture Ajit Singh M.Sc. (Ag) Student, Deptt. of Agril. Economics & Mgmt, SVPUA&T, Meerut (UP) H L Singh Assistant Professor, Deptt. of Agril. Economics & Mgmt, SVPUA&T, Meerut (UP) V S Chaudhary Contractual Teacher, Deptt. of Agril. Economics & Mgmt, SVPUA&T, Meerut (UP) ABSTRACT This Study attempts to examine the resource use efficiency of Paddy production in Meerut district of Western UP. A sample of 100 farmers was selected through multistage sampling technique. Farmers were categorized on the basis of land holding into marginal, small, medium and large farmers. Cobb Douglas production function approach was used to measure the resource use efficiencies by calculating and comparing Marginal Value Products (MVPs) and acquisition cost (AC). Results depicted that ratio of MVP to AC for most of the resources were greater than 1 showing under-utilization of these resources. While the use of manure and fertilizer was found to be over utilised among all categories of farms, and irrigation was in medium and large farmers. Analysis of Resource-Use Efficiency of Paddy Production in Meerut district of Western Uttar Pradesh KEYWORDS : Introduction India ranked first in area under Paddy (43.97 million ha) with 67 per cent under high yielding varieties and second in terms of production (104.32 million tonnes) during 2011-12 and it stood next to China in the world. But, the productivity level in India is 2.37 tonnes per hectare, compared to other major rice producing countries, viz., Japan (6.52 t/ha), China (6.24 t/ha) and Indonesia (4.25 t/ha). It is generally believed that farmers in developing country like India fail to exploit full potential of technologies and/or to make allocative errors in resource use with the result that yields show wider variation, usually reflect- ing a corresponding variation in the management capacitates of the farmers. This shows that considerable scope exists for rais- ing productivity and income of the farmers by improving their inefficiency. The factors responsible for inefficiencies need to be identified and eradicate properly for achieving a higher produc- tion in paddy. The launching of High Yielding Variety Programme (HYVP) in India has enhanced the importance of the study of resource use efficiency in crop production. The concept of ef- ficiency is vital to policy makers both at micro and macro levels. It helps to policy makers, researchers and extension workers. In this context studies on efficiency in paddy cultivation focus on the possibility of increasing the paddy yield, income of farmers with conserving the resources on farms. Methodology: Meerut district of Western Uttar Pradesh was selected purpo- sively for the present investigation. Out of 12 community blocks, two blocks were selected purposively on the basis of highest area and production under paddy cultivation. A complete list of all the villages of the each selected block was prepared with the help of block officials and arranged in alphabetical order. From each selected block, two villages and a total of four villages were selected randomly for the selection of the respondents. A list of all the farmers of each of selected villages was obtained from gram pradhan of the respective villages, and the informa- tion on their land holding possess by each category of farmers were procure from the record of village revenue officer and Tehsil head quarter. All the farmers were then categorised into four size groups i.e. marginal (less than one hectare), small (1 to < 2 hectare), medium (2 to < 4 hectares) and large category (more than 4 hectares and above). From the list of the farmers 25 respondents from each village and a total of 100 farmers were selected in probability proportion to their population for the collection of data. The primary data were collected by per- sonal interview method with the help of pre-tested and well- structured survey schedules Estimation of production function To examine the resources use efficiency in the production of paddy, regression analysis approach was employed. The fol- lowing form of Cobb-Douglas type of production function was found suitable and apply for all categories of farms due to its wider applicability in the agricultural research. Y= aX 1 b1 X 2 b2 X 3 b3 X 4 b4 X 5 b5 X 6 b6 Where: Y = Total output in quintals X 1 = Expenditure on seed in Rs. X 2 = Expenditure on human labour in Rs. X 3 = Expenditure on machine labour in Rs. X 4 = Expenditure on irrigation in Rs. X 5 = Expenditure on manure and fertilizer in Rs. X 6 = Expenditure on plant protection measures in Rs. a= constant b 1 ,b 2 ,b 3 ,b 4 ,b 5 and b 6 are the regression coefficient (also elasticity of production) attached to the respective variable. Estimation of Marginal Value Productivity Before estimation of regression equation, zero order correlation matrices were estimated to examine the presence of multi-col- linearity between different pair of independent variables and to take necessary steps to get rid of this problem. To remove the multi collinearity, one of the two independent variable viz., one which have higher correlation with output was dropped. The marginal value product of resources was estimated by tak- ing the partial derivatives of output with respect to the con- cerned input and multiplying by the price of output. This proce- dure is explained below: Y= a X 1 b1 X 2 b2 X 3 b3 X 4 b4 X 5 b5 X 6 b6 The partial derivative of output (Y) with respect to input (X 1 ) is: dy /dX 1 =b 1 aX 1 b1-1 X 2 b2 X 3 b3 X 4 b4 X 5 b5 X 6 b6 =(b 1 / X 1 )a X 1 b1 X 2 b2 X 3 b3 X 4 b4 X 5 b5 X 6 b6 = (b1.) Y / X 1 Where Y /X 1 = average physical product of X 1 (APP X1 )