A. L. AL-Mashhdani - Lecturer Dep. Agric.Economic- Coll. Agric. Univ. Baghdad
Z. H. Mahmood - Lecturer Dep. Agric.Economic- Coll. Agric. Univ. Baghdad

Rice is an important crop. It is the third main crop after wheat and barley in Iraq and the first major summer crop, which occupies a prominent position in Iraqi agricultural production. It has a high nutritional and consumer value to most Iraq s population. This study aimed to estimate the profit and cost functions as well as economic, price, cost, and technical efficiencies beside the other economic indices at actual, optimal and profit-maximizing production of rice. A random sample of 245 rice farms in Nejaf province was selected during the agricultural season 2016. From efficiency scales of profit function, it was shown that the product price had the greatest impact on the profit compared to other variables (average production costs and yield). According to the cost function, the optimum production volume and the maximum production volume for the short term were 64.83 tons and 117.42 tons respectively. The lowest price that the farmer can accept was 194.83 thousand dinars / ton. At this price, the producer loss all fixed costs in the short term, hoping that the price of rice will improve in the long term. Net income was estimated based on the actual and cost minimizing and profit maximizing production, which amounted to 8084.32, 30852.65 and 45547.5 thousand dinars, respectively. Both of technical efficiency and economic efficiency were 34%. The price efficiency was 28.4% and the cost efficiency was 0.52. We conclude from the study that economic resources have not been exploited optimally, indicating that actual production is far from optimal production. The study recommends a production policy aimed at increasing economic efficiency and optimizing the use of available resources, which is reflected in increased efficiency in the use of productive resources.

Profit Function, Cost Function, Technical Efficiency, Economic Efficiency, Cost Efficiency