Examining Technical Efficiency in Indian Agricultural Production Using Production Frontier Model Kailash Chandra Pradhan 1 Shrabani Mukherjee 2 Abstract The study estimates the technical efficiency (TE) of agricultural production in India using production frontier model for both cross-section and panel data for the years 1999 and 2007. Given the persistent low productivity of agriculture in India, there is a serious need to identify the determining factors for technological lock-in for agricultural production in order to accelerate sustainable productivity and technical efficiency. The model claims that farmer’s education, household’s production process, proportion of irrigated area covered by canals, availability of wells, yielding variety of lands, government services, agricultural expenditure by local government and women reservations in local government significantly contribute to efficiency in resource utilization in farm production. Traditional tech- niques such as ‘learning by doing’ is, generally, preferred than the adoption of new technologies for agricultural production. It makes a constraint of technological lock-in. JEL: C23, C33, D20, O13 Keywords Production function, agricultural farmers, technical efficiency, panel data Research Article Corresponding author: Shrabani Mukherjee, Associate Professor, Symbiosis School of Economics, Symbiosis International (Deemed University), 3rd Floor, SCHC Building, Senapati Bapat Road, Pune, Maharashtra 411004, India E-mails: shrabani.mukherjee@sse.ac.in; shrabani0808@gmail.com 1 Joint Director, National Institute of Labour Economic Research and Development (NILERD), Delhi, India. 2 Associate Professor, Symbiosis School of Economics, Symbiosis International University, Pune, India. South Asia Economic Journal 19(1) 22–42 © 2018 Research and Information System for Developing Countries & Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka SAGE Publications sagepub.in/home.nav DOI: 10.1177/1391561418761073 http://journals.sagepub.com/home/sae