Indian Journal of Economics and Development

This study compares the costs and returns of paddy farms under SRI, transplantation and direct seeding methods. A pre-tested schedule was used to collect data through survey method related to the rabi season. The study was based on input-output data from 90 sample paddy farmers i.e., 30 each adopting transplantation, SRI and direct seeding methods were selected randomly in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. The Cobb-Douglas production function analysis indicated increasing returns to scale in SRI (∑bi =1.0821) and decreasing returns to scale for transplanted farms (∑bi =0.8734) and direct seeded farms (∑bi =0.8374) indicating that SRI was comparatively better system than transplantation and direct seeding methods. The production elasticities are negative for manures and fertilizers (−0.0036) in SRI, plant protection chemicals (−0.0060) in transplantation, and fertilizers (0.0270) in direct seeded paddy farms indicating the excess usage of these inputs.