The extent of resource use inefficiencies in cotton production in Pakistan’s Punjab: an application of Data Envelopment Analysis

This paper attempts to identify sources of resource use inefficiency for cotton production in Pakistan’s Punjab. The use of a non-parametric method, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), is developed to study the relative technical and allocative efficiencies of individual farms which use similar inputs, produce the same product and operate under comparable circumstances. In the ‘cotton–wheat’ system of Pakistan, there are a considerable number of farms that are both technically and allocatively inefficient. The use of DEA shows that the technique provides a clear identification of both the extent and the sources of technical and allocative inefficiencies in cotton production. However, both the interpretation of the farm level results generated and the projection of these results to a higher level require care, given the technical nature of the agricultural production processes. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.