Farmer’s Resources Uses and Technical Efficiency of Soybean Production in the Shan State of Myanmar

This study was conducted to investigate the production efficiency and profitability of soybean farmers in the Shan State areas of Myanmar during July and August 2019. Southern Shan state of Taunggyi and northern Shan State of Kyaukme Township was chosen as representative regions under soybean production from where nine villages of Kyaukme and three villages of Taunggyi were selected. A total of 108 farmers took to analyze the data. Gross margin analysis was employed to compare the profitability of soybean by two income groups in each region. Descriptive statistics and Cobb-Douglas stochastic production frontier using FRONTIER 4.1 were applied to analyze the factors affecting the yield of soybean and resource use efficiency. The result reveals that: technical efficiency in two regions, farmers in Kyaukme achieved the mean technical efficiency of 0.49 which is lower than in Taunggyi with the average technical efficiency of 0.83. In the short run, there is a scope for increasing soybean production by 51% in Kyaukme and by 17% for Taunggyi through efficient resource use. Therefore, an improvement in technical efficiency is still possible under present technology in the study areas. Keywords: Soybean production, Technical efficiency, stochastic production function DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-16-07 Publication date:August 31st 202