TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF WHEAT PRODUCTION IN RAIN-FED AREAS: A CASE STUDY OF PUNJAB, PAKISTAN

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1 Perfor. of Summer forage legumes n Pothowar Pak. J. Agr. Sc., Vol. 49(3), ; 2012 ISSN (Prnt) , ISSN (Onlne) TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF WHEAT PRODUCTION IN RAIN-FED AREAS: A CASE STUDY OF PUNJAB, PAKISTAN Abd Hussan 1,*, Abdul Saboor 1, Muhammad Azeem Khan 2, Abdul Qayyum Mohsn 1 and Fayyaz ul Hassan 3 1 Department of Economcs and Agrculture Economcs, PMAS-Ard Agrculture Unversty, Rawalpnd, Pakstan; 2 Socal Scences Research Insttute, Natonal Agrcultural Research Centre, Islamabad, Pakstan; 3 Department of Agronomy, PMAS-Ard Agrculture Unversty, Rawalpnd, Pakstan. * Correspondng author s e.mal: abdecon@gmal.com Ths study has analysed the techncal effcency n wheat producton n the ran-fed croppng zone of Punjab through stochastc Cobb-Douglas producton fronter. It s based on the cross sectonal data of the wheat crop for the crop year , collected from a random sample of seventy farm households. The mean techncal effcency of wheat producton was 47.1 percent n the study area. The results sgnfy that farmers of the ran-fed zone of Punjab have a scope to ncrease productvty of wheat through techncal effcency mprovements under the exstng condtons of nput-use and technology. The yeld of wheat can be doubled through adopton of better practces of technology. Seed rate has contrbuted negatvely and sgnfcantly to wheat producton, ndcatng that there s possblty to ncrease wheat producton by decreasng seed rate. Irrgaton applcaton to the crop has sgnfcant postve contrbuton to wheat producton ndcatng that there s scope for ncreasng wheat producton by mprovement n mosture avalablty through better conservaton of ran water or nvestment n water sources. The neffcency n wheat producton was due to sowng of poor qualty crop produce as seed year after year and large operatonal farm sze n Rab season. On the other hand, tractor ownershp was a techncal neffcency decreasng farm characterstc Keywords: Wheat productvty, food securty, ran-fed, Stochastc Cobb-Douglas producton fronter INTRODUCTION Food nsecurty s one of the major challenges faced by world. As many nternatonal organzatons ncludng Food and Agrculture Organzaton (FAO) and the World Food Program of the Unted Natons have warned of the mpendng onslaught of food securty, at the global level (Naz, 2008). Wheat s a major crop to address the food nsecurty n Pakstan as t provdes seventy two percent of the total proten and forty eght percent of calores n the daly dets of people n the country (Mnstry of Fnance, 2008). Over last three decades, producton of wheat ncreased by 109 percent (from 11.5 mllon tones n to 24.0 mllon tones n ). However, the country has been mportng sgnfcant quanttes of wheat to meet the needs of ts fast growng populaton. The fscal year wtnessed the worst ever wheat crss n the hstory of Pakstan. The country mported 1.82 mllon tones (8.54% of the total requrement) and 3.19 mllon tones (15.91% of the total requrement) of wheat n years 2007 and 2008, respectvely. Though, wheat yeld has ncreased over tme by 69 percent; from 15.9 mounds per acre n to 26.9 mounds per acres n (Pakstan Bureau of Statstcs, 1991 and 2011). However, mproved sem-dwarf wheat cultvars avalable n Pakstan have genetc yeld potental of 60 to 80 mounds per acre (PARC, 2012). Thus, there s a yeld gap of about 55 to 65 percent. Yeld gap for the wheat crop accounts about 40 percent n rrgated areas of Punjab and even more n the ranfed areas as the yeld potental of the varetes recommended for these areas s almost equal to that for rrgated areas but yeld obtaned by the farmers even n the years wth better ranfall s almost half of what s obtaned n rrgated zones (Hussan et al., 2011). Punjab s classfed nto fve agro-ecologcal zones vz. cotton-wheat, mxed, rce-wheat, low ntensty and ran-fed. It s a major wheat producng provnce, wth more than 75 percent contrbuton to the total wheat produced durng n the country (Pakstan Bureau of Statstcs, 2012). Ran-fed/Pothwar zone s comprsed of fve dstrcts vz. Attock, Chakwal, Rawalpnd, Jhelum and Islamabad. Ranfed zone s the smallest zone as per both area under wheat cultvaton and producton s concerned. In the crop year , area under wheat cultvaton and total producton n ths zone were thousand hectares and thousand tonnes respectvely and t accounted for 6.8 percent of the provncal wheat area and 4.2 percent of the wheat producton, respectvely (Pakstan Bureau of Statstcs, 2010). A very small proporton of farms mostly n rrgated areas are experencng fast growng modernzaton, whle majorty of the farmers both n rrgated as well as ran-fed areas are

2 Hussan, Saboor, Khan, Mohsn & Hassan resource poor and loosng out even the exstng potental. Ether they are unaware of proper producton technology or can not afford to adopt new technologes. Therefore, reducng polarzaton wthn the agrculture sector by helpng the neffcent farmers to approach the fronter s very mportant. In the same context, dentfcaton of factors responsble behnd yeld gaps and fndng soluton to resolve stagnatng productvty n dfferent producton systems s of vtal mportance. By addressng techncal effcency ssues of the wheat farmers, we can ncrease wheat productvty and handle food nsecurty challenge n the best possble way. Ctng few studes [e.g., Fan (1991); Ln (1992); Thrtle et al. (1995); Kalrajan et al. (1996), Ahmad and Ahmad (1998); Pngal and Hesey (1999) and Ahmad et al. (2002) etc.] t s argued that the exstence of hgher techncal neffcences could fully offset the potental gans of hghly superor technologes. Snce technologcal development s a slow process, the ncrease n agrculture growth n future wll depend on the stock of exstng knowledge and how fast ths knowledge s dssemnated to the farmers. Ths wll help n mprovng the techncal effcency of the growers. In ths reference, so far more or less forty studes have been undertaken specfcally for Pakstan, out of these eleven pertaned to wheat crop. Fve studes have been conducted n Punjab. Out of these two studes were pertaned to ranfed areas of the provnce. The study conducted by Ahmad and Ahmad (1998) used tme seres data for the perod of to for four dstrcts of the ran-fed Punjab and appled fxed effects technque to the data. The results reported that mean effcences of Attock, Rawalpnd, Jehlum and Chakwal dstrcts were reported at 89, 84, 88 and 88 percent respectvely. Qasm and Knerr (2010) analyzed techncal effcency of wheat farmers n ran-fed zone of the provnce based on farm level data. Though n ths study, an attempt has been made to fnd out determnants of wheat productvty under ran-fed condtons but mportant nformaton about wheat yeld and techncal effcency levels of the farmers are not gven. Thus, there s an nformaton gap about determnaton of techncal effcency level of wheat farmers n the ran-fed areas of the provnce. Furthermore, n vew of ncreasng nput prces (especally of fuel and fertlzers) and hgher support prces announced by the government for wheat produce n the year and , t s antcpated that over tme changes n techncal effcency level of wheat farmers have occurred. Keepng all ths n context, ths study has been desgned to analyze techncal effcency of wheat farmers n the ran-fed zone of Punjab by fndng out determnants of wheat producton and studyng the effects of farm and farmer specfc attrbutes assocated wth techncal neffcency on wheat producton. MATERIALS AND METHODS Data collecton and sample sze: Multstage purposve random samplng technque was appled to collect the data for the study. Frst stage unts were dstrcts wthn croppng zone. Rawalpnd dstrct was selected as t s one of the major wheat producng dstrcts n the zone. Rawalpnd dstrct s ranked thrd by area, after Attock and Chakwal dstrcts n the zone wth area allocaton to wheat crop of thousand hectares n the crop year and s ranked second by wheat producton n the zone, after Attock dstrct wth a total producton of thousand tones (Pakstan Bureau of Statstcs, 2010). Second and thrd stage unts were tehsls and vllages respectvely. There are eght tehsls n Rawalpnd dstrct vz. Rawalpnd town, Pothohar, Murree, Gujar Khan, Taxla, Kahuta, Kotl Suttan and Kalar Syedann (Wkpeda, 2012). Selecton of tehsl and vllages was made n consultaton wth agrculture extenson department of the dstrct. Tehsl Gujar Khan was selected for the feld survey. Nne vllages of the tehsl vz. Aadara, Chak Bhahadur, Chhokar, Daultala, Dhonka, Dokhra, Lodhay, Nata Mora and Ntha were vsted to ntervew farmers. As the topographcal and geographcal characterstcs are same across the study area, thus 6-8 farmers were ntervewed from each of the vllages of the selected tehsl. The farm level cross sectonal data was collected for the crop year A total of seventy farmers were randomly ntervewed by usng a comprehensve questonnare. The collected data were rechecked, edted and coded accordngly. Model specfcaton and estmaton: The techncal effcency of wheat farms was estmated usng the stochastc fronter producton functon proposed by Agner et al. (1977) and Meeuesn and Van den Brock (1977). The general from of the stochastc fronter functon s: ln Y k X k V (1) Where Y s the dependent varable n the producton functon showng the per acre yeld (kg) for the -th farmer. X k s ndcates nput varables used by the -th farmer. The α and α k are unknown parameters to be estmated. V s usual error term whch may result due to weather condtons, economc advertses or plan luck. Whle μ s non negatve (one-sded) error term that captures neffcency such as faults n management. For the neffcent farm, the actual yeld s less than (or equal to) the potental yeld. Therefore, the rato of actual and potental output can be treated as a measure of techncal effcency. Usng equaton (1), techncal effcency (TE) of the -th farm s derved as: Y TE exp( ) (2) * Y Where Y * s the maxmum possble yeld and Y s the actual yeld obtaned by a sampled farmers. To study the effect of socoeconomc factors on neffcency, t was 412

3 Effcency of wheat producton n ran-fed areas observed that t s better done n a sngle-step rather than n two-step procedures (Wlson and Hadley, 1998; Battese and Coell, 1995). The error term assocated wth techncal neffcency of the producton of wheat farmers s assumed to be ndependently dstrbuted, such that the techncal neffcency effect for the -th farmer s obtaned by tracton (at zero) of the normal dstrbuton wth mean μ and varance σ 2, such that (3) Z m m Where Z s are socoeconomc characterstcs of the farmers. The δs are unknown parameters to be estmated and are ω s are unobservable random varables whch are assumed to be ndependently dstrbuted and obtaned by truncaton of the normal dstrbuton wth zero mean and constant varance (σ 2 ). Revew of lterature revealed that stochastc fronter producton functons of Cobb-Douglas and translog specfcatons of stochastc fronter producton model are most commonly used n analyzng techncal effcency n crop sector. The Cobb-Douglas form have advantage over the translog specfcaton, as ncluson of square and nteracton terms of the nput varables n the producton model results nto multcollnearty problem, especally when the sample sze s comparatvely small. Therefore, the Cobb-Douglas functonal form was used to estmate the ndvdual techncal effcency and to examne the factors affectng t (equaton 4). 5 (4) Ln Y lnx dd V 0 k k 1 x Where, Y = Yeld of the -th farmer (kg) X k = Use of the k-th nput by the th farmer D X = Dummy varable for a nput use V = Random-error assumed to be dentcally and ndependently dstrbuted N (0, σ 2 v) μ = Frm specfc neffcency effect assumed to follow a truncated (at zero) normal dstrbuton N (μ, σ 2 u ). The form of neffcency model used for the study s as under. 4 Z m m m 1 dd z Z m = Socoeconomc characterstcs of farmers D z = Dummy varable for a farm characterstc The model (equaton 3 and 4) were estmated usng the computer programme Fronter 4.1 (Coell, 1996) to estmate smultaneously the parameters of the stochastc producton fronter and the techncal neffcency effects. Specfcaton of the varables: Specfcaton of the varables of producton functon s as under: Y = Yeld of wheat on the -th farm (kg per acre) X 1 = Ploughngs for seed bed preparaton (number per acre), X 2 = Seed use (kg/acre), X 3 = Expendtures on weeds control (Rs./acre), X 4 = NPK fertlzer nutrents applcaton (kg/acre) (5) X 5 = Farm yard manure use (tons/acre) D X = Dummy varable for rrgaton applcaton (value s one f crop was rrgated at least once durng crop season, otherwse zero). Specfcaton of the varables of neffcency model s as below: Z 1 = Experence of the farmer n crop producton (years) Z 2 = Famly sze of the farmer (number) Z 3 = Sowng perod/ age of the man varety at farm (years) Z 4 = Operatonal farm sze n the Rab season (acres) D z = Dummy for tractor ownershp (value s one f a farmer owns a tractor, otherwse zero) RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Sample characterstcs: The mean and standard devatons of the varables used n the estmaton of techncal effcency and ts determnants are presented n Table 1. Ranfall n the Rab season of crop year was comparatvely poor n the study area. Thus, there was mosture stress condton n the Rab season and mean crop yeld was very low; 277 kg per acre. In the ran-fed areas, farmers plough land several tmes to conserve monsoon mosture and then prepare seed bed for wheat crop sowng. In the study area, mean number of cultvatons for mosture conservaton and seed bed preparaton was around seven. Average seed rate for the crop was 45.1 kg per acre. Most of the farmer (70.0 percent) reported to apply weedcdes to control weeds nfestaton of the crop. Mean expendtures on weeds control were Rs.377 per acre. Mean use of NPK fertlzer nutrents was 45.5 kg per acre. Majorty of the farmers (58.3 percent) reported to use farmyard manure for the crop. Mean use of farmyard manure was 0.8 tons per acre. In the study area, one-ffth of farmers (19.4 percent) reported to have dug wells at ther farms. These farmers reported to rrgated lmted area of the crop two to three tmes durng whole crop season. Survey results revealed that n the study area, most of the farmers (90 percent) were very experenced and had been nvolved n ths busness snce more than 10 years. Mean farmng experence of the sampled respondents was 31.1 years (Table 1). Most of the farmers (70 percent) reported to lve n jont famly system, thus average famly sze was hgh n the study area (7.6 members per household). Majorty of the farmers (60 percent) reported to sow seed of same varety snce three or more years. Recommended varetes for ran-fed areas are; Chakwal-97, Wafaq-2001, NARC-09, GA-2002, Chakwal-50 and Horse-2009 (PARC, 2012). Only 8.6 per cent of the farmers n ths zone reported to sow Chakwal-97 varety of wheat. Most of the farmers (52.9 percent) reported to sow seed of Inqlab-91 varety, followed by seed of Saher-2006, Uqab-2000 (17.1 percent each) varetes. Remanng farmers (4.3%) reported to sow seed of other non-recommended wheat varetes. Average 413

4 Hussan, Saboor, Khan, Mohsn & Hassan Table 1. Mean, standard devaton and percentage of key varables Crop Specfc Varables Mean Standard Mnmum Maxmum Devaton Yeld (kg/acre) Ploughngs for seed bed preparaton (No./acre) Seed use (kg/acre) Expendtures on weeds control (Rs./acre) NPK fertlzer nutrents (kg/acre) Farm yard manure use (tons/acre) Irrgaton applcaton to the crop (% farms) 20.0 Farmer, Household and Farm-specfc Varables Experence of the farmer n crop producton (years) Famly sze of the farmer (No.) Sowng perod/ age of the man varety at farm (years) Operatonal farm sze n Rab season (acres) Wheat area (acres) Tractor ownershp (% farmers) 41.6 age or sowng perod of man wheat varety at the farm was about four years. Mean operatonal farm sze of the sampled farmers n the Rab season was 9.7 acres wth area allocaton to wheat crop of 4.6 acres. Most of the farmers n the area are resource poor and lacks n ownershp of farm machnery. Smlarly, tractor ownershp was reported by less than half of the farmers (41.6 percent). Estmaton of Fronter Producton Functon: Techncal effcency and factors nfluencng techncal effcency were examned by fttng fronter producton functon model ncludng the explanatory factors of techncal neffcency. The results obtaned are presented n Table 2. The maxmum lkelhood estmates of stochastc fronter producton model revealed that coeffcent of seed rate had a negatve sgn and was sgnfcantly dfferent from zero at one per cent level,.e. t s contrbutng negatvely towards wheat producton. Ths mples that farmers n the ran-fed zone sow hgher than recommended seed rate for wheat crop. Recommended seed rate for ran-fed areas s 40 to 45 kg per acre (PARC, 2012), whle consderably large number of the sampled farmers (43.3 per cent) reported to sow more than recommended seed quantty for the crop. Smlarly, Bettese and Hassan (1999) and Hassan and Ahmad (2005) also reported that wheat farmers used more than recommended seed rate n cotton-wheat and mxed croppng zones of the Punjab provnce respectvely. So, there s a need to teach farmers to use recommended seed rate for the wheat crop n the study area as well as n the whole provnce. Negatve coeffcent of seed rate also mply that farmers use poor qualty farm produce as seed whch results nto germnaton of more than recommended number of plants per unt area wth low vgor to bear the adverse ard clmatc condtons, whch ultmately results nto low crop producton. Moreover, most of the farmers n the study area sow seed of the crop varetes recommended for rrgaton areas. The varables for rrgaton were sgnfcant at one per cent level and mples Table 2. Maxmum lkelhood estmates of Stochastc Fronter Producton model Parameter Standard Error t-value B *** Ln cultvatons (No.) Ln seed use (kg) *** Ln weeds control cost (Rs.) Ln NPK nutrents (kg) Ln FYM (tons) Irrgaton (dummy) ** Varance Parameters Sgma square *** Gamma * Log lkelhood functon Note: ***, ** and * ndcated sgnfcance at 1 and 5 and 10 percent levels, respectvely. 414

5 Effcency of wheat producton n ran-fed areas that rrgaton applcaton to the crop would add 0.27 percent to the wheat yeld. Most of the other varables had expected sgns but were statstcally nsgnfcant. The sgns of the varables of cultvatons for the wheat crop producton and fertlzer nutrents use were negatve, whch means that farmers had to excessvely plough the land for mosture conservaton n drought condtons n antcpaton of ranfall. The postve mpact of the fertlzer nutrents on crop producton s lnked wth avalablty of suffcent water avalablty. The negatve sgns of these varables show that there s severe water (mosture) shortage n the study area whch results nto negatve mpact of fertlzer on the crop productvty. The fndngs about negatve contrbuton of fertlzer nutrents to wheat producton are smlar to Qasm and Knerr (2010) who studed the techncal effcency of wheat farmers n the ran-fed zone of Punjab provnce of Pakstan and Ghaderzadeh and Rahm (2008) who analyzed the techncal effcency of wheat farms n ran-fed areas of Kurdstan provnce of Iran. The sgns of weeds control cost and farmyard manure use were postve but nsgnfcant. Mean techncal effcency of the sampled farmers was 47.1 percent, mplyng that on an average 52.9 percent of ther techncal potentals n wheat producton are not beng realzed (Table 3). In other words, ndcatng possblty of mprovng wheat yeld by more than ffty percent by followng effcent crop management practces. The techncal effcency level of wheat and other crops farmer n the study area was low than the wheat and crop farmers of ard areas n the neghborng countres. Ghaderzadeh and Rahm (2008) reported that mean techncal effcency level of the wheat farmers n ran-fed areas of Kurdstan provnce of Iran was 65.5 percent. Coell and Battese (1996) reported that mean techncal effcency scroes of crop farmers at vllage level n dfferent ard zones of Inda were ranged from 71.0 to 74.0 percent. Smlarly, a decrease n the techncal effcency level of the wheat farmers can be conceved over tme by comparng results of present study wth the fndng of the study conducted by Ahamd and Quresh (1999) n ran-fed zone of the Punjab provnce of Pakstan. They reported that mean techncally effcency score of the crop farmers was 62.0 percent. Table 3 shows the frequency dstrbuton of estmated techncal effcency for the sampled farmers. It s observed that most of the wheat farmers were really neffcent n wheat producton, as 70 percent farmers had techncal effcency scores equal to less than 60 percent. About one-ffth of the farmers (23.2 percent) had effcency scores n the range of percent and just seven percent farmers had effcency scores above 80 percent level. The neffcency could be due to personal, household and farm specfc factors (Table 4). Sowng perod or age of the man varety at the farm and operatonal sze had postve sgns and were statstcally sgnfcant. It means that these farm specfc factors are causng neffcency n wheat producton n the ran-fed zone. Coell and Battese (1996) also reported that farm sze was nversely related to techncal effcency scores of the crop farmers n ran-fed zones of Inda. On the other hand, dummy varable of tractor had a negatve sgn and was statstcally sgnfcant, whch means that tractor ownershp had a postve mpact on wheat Table 3. Techncal effcency levels and dstrbuton of the sample farms nto categores by effcency levels Effcency Levels Percent Maxmum 86.4 Mnmum 9.3 Mean 47.1 Standard devaton 25.6 Effcency Categores Percent Farmers and above 7.1 Table 4. Estmates of the nfluence of farm-specfc factors on techncal effcency Parameter Standard Error t-value δ Experence (year) Famly sze (No.) Age of man varety at farm (years) *** Rab season operatonal farm sze (acre) ** Tractor ownershp (Dummy) ** Note: *** and **ndcates sgnfcance at 1 and 5 percent levels, respectvely. 415

6 Hussan, Saboor, Khan, Mohsn & Hassan producton n ran-fed areas. Farmng experence and famly sze were nsgnfcant whle had expected sgns. Concluson and Recommendatons: Seed rate, mosture or rrgaton water avalablty are sgnfcant determnants of wheat yeld n the ran-fed croppng zone of Punjab. The mean techncal effcency of wheat producton has been found to 47.1 percent. Thus there s a scope to ncrease wheat yeld through techncal effcency mprovement under the exstng condtons of nput use and technology. If the effcency could be mproved, farmers wll gan consderably n terms of hgher producton. Furthermore; techncal neffcences are sgnfcantly and postvely related to age of the man varety at farm and Rab season operatonal farm sze, whle, tractor ownershp have a sgnfcant negatve mpact on techncal neffcency of the wheat farmers. Keepng n vew the results of ths study t s suggested that farmers should be taught to use approprate seed rate. The use of poor qualty crop produce as seed should be dscouraged and farmers should be taught to use certfed seed of wheat varetes approved by the agrcultural department for ran-fed areas. Improved extenson servces can play effectve role n ths regard. Moreover, effcent mosture conservaton practces or ncrease n rrgaton water avalablty could also have a very postve mpact on wheat producton. Ran-fed farmng s very rsky n nature, thus resource poor farmers are dverted to dfferent farm and non-farm actvtes hence effcency for the crops s reduced. Ths s also evdent from negatve and sgnfcant relatonshp of techncal neffcency wth Rab season operaton farm sze. Farmers are unwllng to aval nsttutonal credt due to rsky nature of ran-fed farmng; therefore, publc sector should come forward wth some polcy to provde farm machnery on rental bass to the area farmers. REFERENCES Ahmad, M. and A. Ahmad An Analyss of the sources of wheat output growth n the Baran area of the Punjab. Pak. Dev. Rev. 37: Ahmad, M. and S. K. Quresh Recent evdence on farm sze and land productvty. Pak. Dev. Rev. 38: Ahmad, M., G.M. Chaudhry and M. Iqbal Wheat productvty, effcency, and sustanablty: A stochastc producton fronter analyss. Pak. Dev. Rev. 41: Agner, D.C., A.K. Lovell and P. Schmdt Formulaton and estmaton of stochastc fronter producton functon models. J. Econometrcs 6: Coell, T A gude to Fronter verson 4.1: A computer program for stochastc fronter producton and cost functon estmaton. Deptt. of Econometrcs, Unv. of New England, Armdale, UK. Battese, G.E. and T.J. Coell A model for techncal neffcency effects n a stochastc fronter producton functon for panel data. J. Emp. Econ. 20: Battese, G.E. and S. Hassan Techncal effcency of cotton farmers n the Vehar dstrct of Punjab, Pakstan. Pakstan J. App. Econ. 15: Coell, T. and G. Battese Identfcaton of factors whch nfluence the techncal neffcency of Indan farmers. Australan J. Agrc. Econ. 40: Fan, S Effects of technologcal change and nsttutonal reform on producton growth n Chnese agrculture. Amer. J. Agrc. Econ. 73: Ghaderzadeh, H. and M.H. Rahm Estmaton of techncal effcency of wheat farms: A case study n Kurdstan provnce of Iran. Amercan-Eurasan J. Agrc. & Envron. Sc. 4: Greene, W.H Econometrc Analyss. Macmllan Press, New York, USA. Hassan, S. and B. Ahmad Stochastc fronter producton functon, applcaton and hypothess testng. Int. J. Agrc. Bol. 7: Hussan, A., A. Bashr, M.Z. Anwar and I. Mehmood Agrcultural productvty and rural poverty n the rcewheat and mxed-croppng zones of the Punjab. Pak. J. Lfe Soc. Sc. 9: Kalrajan, K.P., M.B. Obwona, and S. Zahao A decomposton of total factor productvty growth: the case of Chnese agrcultural growth before and after reforms. Amer. J. Agrc. Econ. 78: Ln, J.Y Rural reform and agrcultural growth n Chna. Amer. Econ. Rev. 82: Meeusen, W. and J.V.D. Broeck Effcency estmaton from Cobb-Douglas producton functon wth composed error. Int. Econ. Rev. 8: Mnstry of Fnance Economc Survey of Pakstan Fnance and Economc Affars Dvson, Mnstry of Fnance, Govt. of Pakstan, Islamabad, Pakstan. Naz, S Unaddressed ssues n food securty. Econ. and Buss. Rev., Daly the Dawn. May 5-11, Pakstan Bureau of Statstcs Wheat: area, producton and yeld. Agrcultural Statstcs of Pakstan, Federal Bureau of Statstcs, Statstcs Dvson, Islamabad, Pakstan. Pakstan Bureau of Statstcs, Crop area and producton by dstrcts ( to ). Statstcs Dvson. Federal Bureau of Statstcs, Statstcs Dvson, Islamabad, Pakstan. Pakstan Bureau of Statstcs Wheat: area, producton and yeld. Agrcultural Statstcs of Pakstan, Federal Bureau of Statstcs, Statstcs Dvson, Islamabad, Pakstan. Pakstan Bureau of Statstcs Wheat: area, producton and yeld. Agrcultural Statstcs of Pakstan,

7 Effcency of wheat producton n ran-fed areas Federal Bureau of Statstcs, Statstcs Dvson, Islamabad, Pakstan. PARC, Farmers secton at offcal webste of Pakstan Agrcultural Research Councl, Islamabad (Avalable onlne wth updates at Pngal, P.L. and P.W. Hesey Cereal crop productvty n developng countres: past trends and future prospects. CIMMYT Economcs Workng Paper No Qasm, M. and B. Knerr Contrbuton of mproved ran-fed wheat productvty towards food securty n Pakstan. A paper presented at Tropentag Conference on World Food System, September, 2010, Zurch, Swtzerland. Thrtle, C., D. Hadley and R. Townsend Polcynduced nnovaton n sub-saharan Afrcan agrculture. Dev. Polcy Rev. 13: Wkpeda, Informaton about Rawalpnd dstrct (avalable onlne wth updates at en.wkpeda.org). Wlson, P. and D. Hadley Measurng and explanng techncal effcency n UK potato producton, J. Agrc. Econ. 49: