Economic Impact of Rythu Bharosa Kendras In Andhra Pradesh India

Kumar NR, Reddy JM, Shafiwu AB, Narayana S and Mahama I

Published on: 2023-11-25

Abstract

The study presented a comprehensive analysis of the impact of farmers' participation in Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) on technical efficiency and cost of cultivation in rice farming. The results highlight that while only a small percentage of farms achieve maximum technical efficiency scores of 1.00 under the assumption of Constant Returns to Scale, a significant proportion of untreated farms (23%) fall into the lowest efficiency group with technical efficiency scores below 60 per cent. This suggests that there is considerable potential for improving input utilization for the majority of farms in both categories. The mean overall technical efficiency score is higher for treated farms (0.82) compared to untreated farms (0.71). The results from doubly robust models viz., Inverse Probability Weighting with Regression Adjustment and Augmented Inverse Probability Weighting consistently demonstrate that farmers' participation in RBKs has a substantial positive impact on technical efficiency, cost of cultivation and cost of production.