Impact of spouses' access to financial services on technological and managerial gaps in rice production

The study investigates the effect of the spouse's access to financial services via self-help groups (SHGs) on technical efficiency, technology and managerial gaps. We use farm-level data from rice farming households in eastern India, propensity score matching method and selectivity-corrected stochastic production frontier model. Results show that farms with access to financial services via a spouse's membership in SHGs have slightly higher technical efficiency than their counterparts. Technology and managerial gaps are higher for farms where spouses have access to financial services via SHGs than their counterparts. With access to financial services via spouses, rice farmers reallocated family labour and hired more labour for crop establishment. Thus, women joining SHGs can increase crop productivity, and extension agents should also focus on spouses and their role in farming decision-making, not just financial management.