Resource Productivity and Resource Use Efficiency in Soybean Production

Investigation was carried out during the year 2010-11. About 32 soybean growers were randomly selected from eight villages of Udgir tehsil of Latur district of Maharashtra. Cross sectional data were collected from soybean growers with the help of pre-tested schedule by personal interview method. Data were related to soybean output and inputs like area under soybean, hired human labour, bullock labour, machine labour, seed, manure and use of nitrogen, phosphorous, potash and family labour as resources. Cobb Douglas production function was fitted to the data. The results revealed that, regression co-efficient of human labour was (0.129) followed by machine labour (0.024) which was positive and highly significant at 1 per cent level. Regression co-efficients of bullock labour (0.067) and plant protection (0.011) was positive and significant at 5 per cent level. Regression co-efficients of seed, manure, nitrogen and phosphorous were also positive but non- significant. Marginal product of area under soybean was 10.803 q followed by machine labour (0.274 q), bullock labour (0.231 q) and so on. MVP to price ratio with respect to phosphorous was 3.01 followed by that of nitrogen (2.98). Hence, preference might be given to increase the use of phosphorous on priority basis in soybean production.