Technical Efficiency of Temple Owned Lands in Tamil Nadu, India

The paper attempts to study the efficiency of crop production and resource use efficiency on temple tenants and owner farms in Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu. A sample of 90 temple tenants and 50 owner farmers from two taluks of Tirunelveli District, nawely, Shencottah and Tenkasi were selected for the study. The reference period of the study was 2002-2003. The efficiency analysis with the stochastic frontier production function has shown, and a resource use efficiency analysis implied that there was ample scope to increase the productivity of the temple tenants and owner farmers by adopting appropriated technologies as well as the optimum allocation of the available resources. Efficiency of the farmers could be supported by technical efficiency, the results of which had indicated that owner farmers were more efficient than the temple tenants. This reveals that there is wider scope for further improvement in the technical efficiency of the temple owned lands.