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The paper discusses the mechanics for decomposing the total change in per hectare rice output owitig to inception of new production technology among various components, as well as to ascertain the technical bias of the new rice production technology with respect to different factor inputs especially in the north and south regions of Bihar. The analysis reveals that the contribution of new rice production technology is more pronounced in southern region as compared to the northern region of the state. With the introduction of high yielding varieties of rice, per hectare production was found to be 43.47 per cent and 47.77 per cent higher in northern and southern regions, resp.ectively. Moreover, the technological bias with respect to factor inputs in rice production was estimated as land and labour saving as well as fertilizer, and capital using in northern region, though it was found to be statistically non-significant. In southern region of the state, technological bias was observed as labour, fertilizer and capital using on one hand and land-saving on the other. However, the technical bias was found to be statistically significant only in case of capital and land.

This study quantitatively assesses the input-output relationship, resource productivity and allocative efficiency of farm inputs under different systems of irrigation through profit function approach using farm level primary cross-section data with respect to sugarcane and wheat of 120 farms from the Meerut district of Western Uttar Pradesh. The study reveals that improvement in water management on private tubewell farms caused a structural break in production relations and shifted the crop production function upwards. The absolute income of all the factors of production by and large was found to be higher under private tubewells as compared to other systems of irrigation. Better water management .in terms of assured, timely and adequate water supply led to an improvement in the productivity of land and fertilizer on private tubewell farms as compared to state tubewell and canal irrigated farms for sugarcane and wheat crops. The reallocation of variable inputs had a very limited scope for increasing the yields and returns under all the irrigation systems. However, the horizontal expansion of irrigation especially through private tubewell, will enhance agricultural production and the net income of the farmers at a rapid rate.