EFFICIENCY EVALUATION OF RICE PRODUCTION IN BANGLADESH

The purpose of this paper is to compare and explain the production efficiencies across rice varieties grown in Bangladesh. Specifically, this study compares the efficiencies among three main rice varieties (Local Aman, HYV Aman and HYV Boro), between two monsoon season varieties (Local Aman and HYV Aman), and between high yielding varieties of monsoon (HYV Aman ) and dry season (HYV Boro) across the seven administrative divisions of Bangladesh. Result indicates that HYV Boro is more efficient (technical, cost and allocative) among all three main rice varieties in Bangladesh. HYV Aman is more efficient than Local Aman in all seven divisions and HYV Boro is more efficient than HYV Aman across all divisions except Sylhet. Several determinants of these efficiency scores were identified using the Tobit regression. The coefficient estimates suggest that off-farm activities of households, loan status, farm subsidies, extension services, household head characteristics (age, literacy, gender and occupation), and dependency ratio of households are the key explanatory variables of these efficiency scores