Efficiency of Maize production in Bangladesh: a stochastic frontier approach

Abstract

In the recent years, maize has emerged as an economically viable crop to the farmers of Bangladesh. This study estimates the technical efficiency of maize production under two different cropping patterns. For this purpose, primary data have been collected from maize farmers from Thakhurgoan district of Bangladesh as this area encompasses the highest connection of maize cultivation. The Translog Stochastic Frontier production function is applied to estimate the technical efficiency of both seasons' maize. The results show that mean technical efficiency is found as 87.5% in the case of Rabi season maize. It is also found that efficiency of maize production on Rabi season is positively influenced by fertilizer and irrigation while it is negatively influenced by farm size. On the other hand, farm size shows positive effect and irrigation shows negative effect on Kharif season maize production.