Increasing competition in international markets, and increasing production costs, increases the need for greater efficiency in Basmati rice production. Levels of technical inefficiency which now exist were estimated via a frontier production function. The modal level of technical inefficiency at farm specific resource levels among 115 Basmati rice producers was 20 per cent which translated into a modal yield loss of 0.4 tons/ha. The better educated households tended to be more technically efficient; late transplanting, and late fertilizer application and water shortages contributed significantly to farm-specific technical inefficiency.
