WHEAT IN BANGLADESH: YIELD GROWTH, PRODUCTION PERFORMANCE AND DETERMINANTS - Soybean and Wheat Crops: Growth, Fertilization, and Yield - page 218

the HYV Kanchan , which presently covers 94% of the wheat area nationally, the maximum
yield obtained at the research station was estimated at 6.5 t/ha (WRC, 2000). This yield level
at the research station is the maximum potential yield of the Kanchan variety in a good
production environment and under sound management practice. In fact, this level of yield was
not achieved in on-farm trials and demonstrations conducted during the process of variety
release in the early 1980s.
The potential farm yield (i.e., the technically efficient yield level obtainable by the
sample farmers) is estimated at 3.03 t/ha [2.52 t/ha (actual mean yield)/0.83 (overall TE)].
Figure 4 presents the results of the yield gap analysis. The total yield gap is 3.98 t/ha of which
yield Gap-I is 3.47 t/ha and yield Gap-II is 0.52 t/ha. The yield Gap-II can be recovered by
removing technical inefficiency alone. Results from Table 3 clearly show that a total of nine
factors significantly affect productivity and/or technical efficiency of the wheat farmers.
Table 6 presents the detailed analysis of these nine factors which significantly influenced
productivity and/or technical efficiency of wheat farmers as evidenced from the joint
parameter estimates of the stochastic production frontier and the inefficiency effects model
(Table 3). It is clear from Table 6 that all these factors have significant and varied effect on
the production performance of the wheat farmers. For example, educated farmers produce 7%
more actual yield, incur 30% less yield loss and operate at 6% higher level of technical
efficiency compared to their uneducated peers. Land suitability has the highest impact on
actual yield levels. Farmers who grew wheat in medium high land (the most suitable land type
for wheat production) actually produce 20% more than the others. Similarly, non-use of
mechanical power incur highest level of yield loss (53%) and these farmers also operate at
8% lower level of technical efficiency when compared to those who do use mechanical
power. The overall yield loss of these wheat farmers is estimated at 510 kg/ha which is 20.3%
of actual yield level.

Total yield gap
(3.984 t/ha)

Yield gap-II
(0.516 t/ha)

Yield gap-I
(3.468 t/ha)

Experiment station
yield (6.5 t/ha)

Potential farm yield
(3.032 t/ha)

Actual farm yield
(2.516 t/ha)

Non-transferable technology
Environmental differences between
experiment station and average farm

Fertilizers, irrigation, sowing date
Weed, attack of rat and bird, disease
Farmers' education, experience

Figure 4. Yield gap analysis of the sampled farmers.