AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS AND RESOURCE USE EFFICIENCY OF SOYBEAN PRODUCTION IN MIDDLE GUJARAT INDIA

The study focused on the cost and returns, resource use efficiency of the soybean production.A multistage random sampling method was used to select the sample.The study included 4 talukas, 12 villages and 120 soybean farmers comprising 45 marginal, 38 small, 26 medium and 11 large farmers from Dahod and Chhotaudepur districts.The primary analytical tools used in the study included tabular analysis, cost concepts and production function analysis.The average total cultivation cost per hectare for soybean farms was 48,333.41.The overall input-output ratio based on Cost C 2 was 1:1.89.Considering the costs, returns and input-output ratio, it is concluded that soybean cultivation was profitable in the middle Gujarat region.The resource efficiency of soybean growers was evaluated using the cobb-douglas production function, with gross income serving as the dependent variable.The analysis focused on six variables, which collectively explained 76 per cent of the variation in gross income, as indicated by an R value of 0.76.The overall sum of the elasticity coefficients, which total 1.14, revealed that the soybean production operates under increasing returns to scale.MVP/MFC ratio was highest for manures (4.20) and human labour (1.11), indicating that these resources were underutilized.However, for seeds (0.54), fertilizers (-5.27), plant protection chemicals (-4.04) and tractors (0.75) were less than one, suggesting overutilization of these resources in the study area.