Assessment of the technological gap ratio for certified seed of Hashemi rice variety

Seed is one of the most important agricultural inputs, which plays a key role in achieving optimal yield and quality of the product. Ever since mankind realized the role of the suitable seed in economic profit and food security, it has always made breeding efforts to provide cultivars with desired genetic characteristics. For the maximum effectiveness of other production inputs such as water, fertilizer and pesticides, access and use of new high-yielding and compatible cultivars is a necessity. In the present study, using the metafrontier frontier function, the technological gap ratio of certified seed of Hashemi rice variety was analyzed. The information of 531 farmers was used for the research. This information was obtained in 2018 using the cluster sampling method according to the size of the population. In this study, data envelopment analysis (DEA) model was used to estimate the technical efficiency relative to the group frontier, and the metafrontier method was used to estimate the technological gap ratio (TGR). The results of the frontier production function estimation showed that the technical efficiency for farmers who used certified seeds is 0.88 and for farmers who did not use certified seeds is 0.82. It means that these producers with a certain amount of inputs averagely produce about 88 percent and 82 percent of product respectively, which using the available input and the type of seed could be produced. The technical efficiency compared to the metafrontier production function was 0.82 in the group that used the certified seeds and 0.72 in the group that did not use this type of seed. The technological gap ratio for the above two groups was 0.93 and 0.86 respectively. In other words, farmers who used certified seeds had better technical performance and had a higher technological gap ratio. This is a promising point for policymakers in the agricultural sector that by promoting the use of certified seeds and taking necessary measures to encourage farmers to use this type of seed, the level of production can be improved.