PRODUCTIVITY ANALYSIS OF EXTERNAL INPUT USE IN RICE PRODUCTION: A CASE STUDY OF SAMSUN PROVINCE, TURKEY

Abstract

During the last century, there has been a decreasing trend on cultivated areas in the world. Therefore, increasing productivity and efficiency have become the main way to promote agricultural development in all countries. Rice is one of the main agricultural crops for food security in the developing countries. In this paper, we examine the productivity of external input use of rice production for the farm level. Cobb-Douglas production function is employed on cross-sectional data of 59 rice farms in 2007. In the model, rice productivity per hectare is the dependent variable. Pesticide use, chemical fertilizer use, seed use, labor use, diesel oil use and crop rotation are explanatory variables. The results reveal that farmers overdo seed, labor and diesel oil in rice production. However, the uses of pesticides and fertilizers were not use enough.