Technical efficiency of banana production in central TamilNadu

Among the major banana producing states, Tamil Nadu is the pioneer state in production of banana and its productivity is found to be very low when compared to the Gujarat and Maharashtra. In this respect, to assess the reasons for poor productivity of banana, a research study was undertaken with the principal objective of assessing the costs and returns and the technical efficiency of banana production in the Central Tamil Nadu. The resource use efficiency analysis indicated that the inputs like human labour, suckers, manure, weedicide, pesticide and nitrogen were found to be statistically significant across all varieties of banana and hence, these are contributive to yield of banana. When one could examine the actual productivity of banana in Tiruchirappalli district, the farmers could realize very low level of productivity because of non-practice of modern technology like precision farming approaches. In this respect, the farmers should be taken to the states like Gujarat and Maharashtra for an exposure visit to learn the modern techniques of raising banana plantations to realize higher productivity.