Technical efficiency of rice seed production and their determinants in Chitwan, Nepal - A one-step scaling stochastic frontier approach

The rice seed subsector plays a significant role in attaining self-sufficiency of rice. In the context of the huge demand-supply gap of rice seeds, it is imperative to increase productivity for assuring environmental sustainability and food security, by increasing the technical efficiency of rice seed production. The study used data from 223 rice seed growers in the Chitwan district of Nepal. A one-step scaling stochastic frontier production model was used to determine the technical efficiency of rice seed production and its determinants. The study revealed that the mean technical efficiency was higher (96.15%) in Bharatpur than in Madi (79.61%). The inefficiency of 3.85% for Bharatpur can be bridged by focusing and targeting education level, contact with extension agents, training and adoption of climate change adaptation strategies; (ii) the gap of 20.39% for Madi can be bridged by focusing and targeting experience, contact with extension agents and adoption of climate change adaptation strategies; (ii) this could further be supported by increasing the usage of inputs such as land, labor, urea and amount of herbicide, but this route might be more favorable in Bharatpur due to increasing return to scale (1.17) compared to Madi (0.94). Policymakers, and the local and provincial governments should focus on the significant socio-economic determinants and encourage the adoption of resistant varieties, improved water management, nutrient management, residue management and changing cropping time, as adoption of these strategies were found to increase technical efficiency by 256%.