Technical efficiency and its determinants on lentil (Lens culunaris) production in Nepal

Lentil is one of the important pulse crops of Nepal and has high export potential. This study aimed to analyze the technical efficiency of the lentil production system and its determinants. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select respondent farmers from four districts representing three provinces in Nepal. Primary data were collected through face-to-face interviews with randomly selected 473 respondents using a semi-structured interview schedule. To derive the results, the stochastic production frontier and Tobit model were adopted. The average lentil output in the study area was found 672.6 ​kg ha^-1 and the input variables such as seed, labor, tractor use, and area were the significant inputs increasing the output of lentils. The mean technical efficiency percentage for the pooled sample was 61.5% with a range between 23.0% and 89.9%. Further, the result revealed that average-performing farmers and least-performing farmers need to reduce their costs by 42.82% and 85.65%, respectively to attain the status of the most efficient farmer. Education, membership in groups and cooperatives, weeding practice, use of improved seed, and lentil farm size were found as determinants of technical efficiency in lentil production and unit increment of those variables favor lentil yield by 0.3%, 2.6%, 21.5%, 3.1%, and 3.1% respectively. As there is room to increase lentil output by using inputs efficiently, the government and related stakeholders should motivate farmers to get involved in groups and cooperatives to pool resources together and share information. Based on the results, with the application of current available resources farmers are strongly recommended to maintain their lentil farm size between 0.5 and 1 ​ha, use improved varietal seed, and also follow at least one weeding operation to increase their farm technical efficiency level by 21.5%.