Efficiency Analysis of Vegetable Production; An Appraisal of Tunnel Farming System in Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

Agricultural interventions are important for constant increase in food production and to provide adequate supply of food to ever growing population. Most of farmers in Pakistan use conventional methods for cultivation of vegetables. Use of seasonal extension technologies such as plastic tunnels in farming can potentially contribute to farm’s capability by helping farmers to improve their efficiencies and by extending the market season, one of the major barriers in meeting food demand. Tunnel farming is relatively new technology in Pakistan and its benefits are not vibrant. This study is an attempt to find out the benefits of tunnel farming in context of Pakistan and also to answer a question that which farming system is more efficient, Conventional or Tunnel farming? For this purpose 353 farmers were interviewed with the help of well-structured questionnaires, five districts were selected from five agro-ecological zones of Punjab i.e. (Toba Tek Singh, Shiekhupura, Pakpattan, Rawalpindi and Sahiwal) from which 226 farmers were using tunnel technology and 127 farmers use conventional methods for cultivation of vegetables. Stochastic frontier analysis was employed to ascertain levels of technical, allocative and economic efficiencies and their determinants for conventional and tunnel farmers. It was found out that farmers using tunnel technology are more efficient as they possess higher technical, allocative and economic efficiencies compare to conventional farmers. It was found that farmers using tunnel technology in vegetable production have 81, 66 and 53 percent technical, allocative and economic efficiencies respectively whereas conventional farmers possesses 70, 56 and 40 percent technical, allocative and economic efficiencies respectively. Reason of higher efficiencies of tunnel farmers is the controlled environment provided by tunnel technology which extends the market season of farmers and they earn more profit by selling off-season vegetables in market. It is suggested that government should launch awareness and training campaigns to introduce farmers with new farming technology and where they can also get proper training by hands on experience.