Abstract

It will come as a strange surprise to many of us to hear that efficiency of production in agriculture of the United States of America is anything but satisfactory. This is sought to be proved in an article. entitled 'How efficient is American agriculture by Theodore W. Schultz in the Journal of Farm Economics, August 1947. This article would. naturally provoke in us the desire to examine the efficiency of production in our agriculture, but with what standards we have yet to decide. Efficiency of production in agriculture is difficult to Judge, unlike in well established industries. In the latter, practically all the factors are controlled and the in-put and out-put in production are easily worked out in cash value and efficiency is determined in a simple manner. But in agriculture, besides the known factors of capital and labour, there are unknown and uncontrolled factors of the soil and climate. Hence comparisons between crop and crop or between tract and tract in the strict sense will have no value. Only broad comparisons can be made to give us an idea of the efficiency of the controlled factors as implements, machines or human labour.

Keywords: