Assessing Efficiency of Food Grain Production Across Indian States: An Investigation Based on Data Envelopment Analysis

Abstract

Over the past decade, India has emerged as one of the major exporters of agricultural products in the international market. Although agriculture in India accounts for about 50% of the economy's employment, its contribution as share to India's gross domestic product is significantly low. India primarily has emphasized on the production of food grains since the government policies promote not only exports but also food security and sustenance of rural and vulnerable sections of the economy. In recent times, India has witnessed a sharp increase in the productivity of food grains, but the underlying factors are of grave concern since issues such as suboptimal production, underutilization of resources and inability to adopt advanced technologies remain unacknowledged. The present study delves into various aspects of the production of food grains across 30 Indian states and emphasizes upon measuring the efficiency of food grain production across the 30 states on the basis of the non-parametric technique of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The evaluation also considers economies of scale. The results highlight the fact that the Indian states are about 21% inefficient in terms of food grain production with the average efficiency score being 0.79. The methodology adopted for this study incorporates crucial factors such as usage of land area, usage of fertilizers and allocation of bank credit to carry the analysis forward. The present study has also aimed at providing certain policy recommendations for the policymakers in this regard so that the states can sustainably improve their efficiency in terms of the production of food grains.

Citation

Adhikari, S. and Chatterjee, N. (2024), "Assessing Efficiency of Food Grain Production Across Indian States: An Investigation Based on Data Envelopment Analysis", Das, R.C. (Ed.) Growth, Poverty and Developmental Aspects of Agriculture, Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 11-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83608-076-320241002