Productive efficiency based collective decision on allocating land for sharecropping in village irrigation systems of Sri Lanka

Abstract

Literature shows that there is a negative relationship between rice yield and the distance to the field from the water sources in irrigation agriculture. In this paper, we test this fact with respect to the village irrigation systems in Sri Lanka through stochastic production frontier analysis with a technical inefficiency model and to examine sectoral productive performance and its determinants. The adopted Bethama (share cropping) practice is an ancient system that has been practised during the water deficit agricultural seasons. Primary data was collected from 460 rice farmers in the Kurunegala District to estimate technical efficiency in three sub locations: head-end fields (HEFs), middle fields (MFs) and tail-end fields (TEFs) in the command area. We reject of head-tail syndrome with respect to the village irrigation systems (VISs). TEFs are more productive than HEFs of the command area. The sharecropping system has been instrumental for allocating land either from HEFs or from MFs due to water constraints. However, based on the intra-sectoral efficiency estimation, this haphazard method of allocation cannot be recommended as technically efficient method of rice farming in VISs.