RESOURCE USE EFFICIENCY AND FACTOR PRODUCTIVITY IN APPLE

The present study is an attempt to identify the factors affecting the productivity of apple orchards using production function approach and to analyse the resource use efficiency in respect of important factor inputs. The apple orchards were classified into five groups on the basis of age of the orchards. Cobb-Douglas production function was applied to find resource—use efficiency. The study revealed that the most rationally used input was fertilizer which turned out to be positively significant in three of the five groups while the most irrationally used input was plant protection which turned out to be positively significant only in one group. Labour was found to be rationally used in one group while its irrational use was depicted in two groups. It did not show any significance in the other two groups. The results further showed that orchardists did not allocate their resources in accordance with the recommendations of horticulturists which could have provided them better remuneration by minimizing the input costs