Empirical Analysis on Resource Use Efficiency of Potato Cultivators in Coochbehar District of West Bengal, India

Potato crop is widely considered as highly capital-intensive crop and very often the potato growers were unable to meet the large expenses for cultivation. Efficient use of resources is of much concern from economic point of view to increase the production level and maximize return. To meet the objective, primary data were collected from the 200 respondents in the selected villages from the Coochbehar district using pre-tested structured schedule through personal interview of the respondents. The resource use efficiency of the inputs used by the potato cultivators in Coochbehar District were estimated using Cobb Douglas production function. The estimated coefficients of significant independent variables were used to compute the marginal value product (MVP) and the resource use efficiency (r). The relative percentage change in MVP of each resource was required to obtain optimal resource allocation. From the study it was observed that the major resources used in the process of potato production were human labour (hired and family), machinery usage, seeds, Urea, MOP, DAP/SSP, farm yard manure (FYM), plant protection chemicals and irrigation. The ratio of MVP to MFC of seeds (1.04), MOP (2.31), DAP/SSP (1.59), plant protection chemicals (3.97) and irrigation (2.08) were found more than one in each case. It clearly indicates that these resources are being used at sub-optimum level and there exists the possibility of enhancing the yield of potato by increasing their use. The level of adjustments required for various resources to earn optimum yield were recorded as seeds (3.61 per cent), MOP (56.72 per cent), DAP/SSP (36.95 per cent), plant protection chemicals (74.82 per cent) and irrigation (51.90 per cent), respectively. It is highly recommendable to enrich the farmers with appropriate technical information, exchange of ideas and exposure, so that they could be able to obtain optimum price for their resources for increasing production and return from potato cultivation. Level of adjustments estimated for various resources will serve as a bench-mark for a grass root agricultural planning for cultivators, government agricultural agencies and related bodies such as agricultural companies in the study area.