Technology and farm performance: paths of productive efficiencies over time

The focus of this paper is the process of adjustment of farm performance to disequilibrium with new technology over time, which has been a subject of speculation till now. It shows that, left to learn from their own experienc e, farmers will be slow to realise the full technical potential of a new te chnology. Drawing on theories of intra-firm diffusion, the hypotheses teste d in this paper using data from India are: (1) initial overall farm perform ances are characterised by modest and widely varying technical and allocati ve efficiencies, and (2) over time, average efficiencies rise. (C) 2001 Els evier Science B.V. All rights reserved.