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Two models of technical inefficiency with a stochastic production frontier are considered in this paper. In the frrst model, it is assumed that the frontier itself does not vary with time, while in the second, the frontier is allowed to move. These models are applied to four years of panel data on wheat farmers in four districts of Pakistan: Faisalabad and Attock in the Punjab, Badin in Sindh, and Dir in the NWFP. Using essentially the same stochastic frontier production function in each of the four districts involved, different stochastic specifications for the inefficiency effects are obtained for the different districts. Technical efficiencies of production of the individual farmers are predicted in each year in which they are observed. Varying patterns of technical inefficiency are observed. The null hypothesis (of no technical inefficiency) cannot be rejected in only one district. In the other districts, while inefficiencies appear to be present in all of them, they are declining at a fairly rapid pace in one. The results highlight the importance of analysis at a disaggregated level because it is clear that both the rate of technical change and relative efficiencies vary across regions and explicit cognisance must be taken of this both in research and policy formulation.

After the sharp food price increases of 2007–2008 food security has once again become a major issue of global concern. When that food price spike was followed by the global financial crisis of 2008, a large increase in the number of food insecure people in Asia was widely expected. But Asian countries managed to avoid such a sharp increase in food insecurity, even though sharp price spikes have recurred since then. In this paper we show how government policy measures largely insulated consumers from severe price increases and maintained food security, but note that this success came at a price. In particular, the global food trading system was weakened, producer incentives were further distorted, and policies that may impose high long‐term efficiency costs became more deeply entrenched. Major policy challenges need to be addressed to ensure Asia's food security over the coming decades.

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