Resource use efficiency analysis for watermelon production in Haryana and Karnataka

Abstract

The Citrullus lanatus (Watermelon) is one of the most important fruit crop grown in tropical regions and eaten around the world. Generally, the smallholders' farmers, especially those located in remote villages are inadequately informed about technical knowledge, inputs and efficient use of resources causing poor production and low productivity. Thus, the present study aimed to examine the efficiency of resources used in watermelon production in Haryana and Karnataka. The total of 120 watermelon growing respondent farmers were selected using multi stage sampling technique from the two watermelon growing states in 2022. In Haryana, the results showed that, the estimated MVP/MFC ratio (Resource use efficiency) of different inputs used in production was revealed as positive and indicating their underutilization, except for the machine labour where it found to be negative and indicating its over-utilization. Whereas, in Karnataka the estimated MVP/MFC ratio (Resource use efficiency) of seed cost found to be negative and indicating its over-utilization. We concluded that inadequate training, exposure, knowledge gap and extension service to farmers in study sites were the reasons that farmers were using their resources inefficiently. It is recommended that the farmers involved in watermelon farming in the surveyed sites should be provided with additional proper technical knowledge for optimizing the use of resources which would help to increase the production and return from watermelon production.