Resource Use Efficiency of Tomato Production under Plastic House in Pokhara Metropolitan City, Nepal

A survey was conducted to assess the technical and allocative efficiency of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) production under the plastic house in metropolitan city of Pokhara, Nepal. From the total tomato growers, ۸۰ farmers were selected through multistage sampling. Stochastic frontier approach is applied to the obtained survey data and analyzed to study the technical and allocative efficiency of tomato production. This research is essential for enhancing tomato yields without incurring additional input expenses. Our results find the mean technical efficiency of ۷۸.۱۹%, which shows the great opportunity of improvement of tomato production in Pokhara. Technical efficiency is positively influenced by education level and training availability and negatively affected by farmers' ages. Subsidy has non-significant effect on technical efficiency in the study area. The allocative efficiency ratio of plastic house area, seed, and di-ammonium phosphate shows its underutilization with a score above ۱. On the contrary, farmyard manure, urea and muriate of potash application are overutilized with a score of less than ۱. The efficiency in tomato production can be improved by optimal allocation of resources, encouraging young farmers in farming, increasing access to education and training to farmers, and change in current subsidy mechanism. Through corrective measures, policies, and practices, an efficient frontier could be achieved by the tomato-growing farmers of the study area, which ultimately will maximize profit without necessarily increasing input level.

Keywords:

Allocative efficiency , Solanum lycopersicum L. , Stochastic production frontier , Technical efficiency.