The present study was conducted on irrigated farms to study the resource use efficiency and returns to scale in the command area of Penganga irrigation project. A sample of 310 farmers was scientifically chosen out of which 94 were from head-reach, 100 from middle reach and 116 belonged the tail reach location of the command area and the study was conducted during the agricultural year 2004-05. The study was confined to three foodgrains, i.e. green gram, kharif Jowar and Wheat, and four cash crops, viz., cotton, sugarcane, banana and soyabean. A Cobb-Douglas production function was fitted to estimate the resource-use efficiency and returns to scale in the crop production in irrigated Indian agriculture. The study observed that some of the resources have been either under-utilised or over-utilised; hence to increase the agricultural production all the resources should be used efficiently. Along with the efficient use of all the resources, new technology should also be adopted for increasing productivity. The ratio of marginal value product to factor cost for some resources (human labour, bullock labour, fertilisers and seeds) was found to be more than one, indicating the operation of increasing factors returns. In general for cash crops, the study suggests to increase the use of resources viz. bullock labour, working capital, seeds and irrigation so as to increase the production of the cultivated cash crops.
