Impact of mechanization on technical efficiency: A case study of rice farmers in Iran

The main objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of mechanization inputs and cultivation systems on the productivity and technical efficiency (TE) of rice production in the Khuzestan province in the southwestern part of Iran. A stochastic frontier analysis was used to measure the TE and three methods in each cultivation stage were assessed. The data analyzed in this study were collected during a survey that covered the crop year of 2009 in two climatic regions. There was a great variation in the levels of efficiency, which ranged from 0.15 to 0.99 with a mean of 0.67. The mechanization index ranged from 0.06 to 0.52, showing a high variation in the application of farm machinery for rice production. The correlation between the mechanization index and TE strongly demonstrated the impact of mechanization on the efficiency of rice producers. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Organising Committee of ICOAE 2012