Abstract

The comparative economics of tissue culture banana and sucker propagated banana was studied under precision farming in Tamil Nadu with the primary data collected from 60 banana growers spread over two taluks in Dharmapuri district. Efficiency of farmers in banana production was assessed through stochastic frontier production technique. Sources of the productivity differences between tissue culture banana farms and sucker propagated banana farms were identified by decomposing the productivity changes. The study revealed that net income from production of banana was seven per cent higher in tissue culture banana than that of sucker propagated banana. The mean technical efficiency in tissue culture banana (88 per cent) and sucker banana (91 per cent) indicated that there is a possibility to increase banana yield by adopting the technology used by the best performers. The contribution of tissue culture technology for higher yield in precision farming was 36.94 per cent.

Keywords: Banana, Precision-Farming, Partial Budgeting, Technical efficiency, Decomposition analysis