Abiotic stress and its impact on production efficiency: The case of rice farming in Bangladesh

• Abiotic factors, causing abiotic stresses – play a major role in determining rice productivity.
• Abiotic stresses such as high or extreme temperature, flooding and salinity are common in South Asia.
• Drought alone leads to a significant loss in rice production.
• Both drought and floods decrease technical inefficiency of rice farmers in Bangladesh.

Enhancing technical efficiency of rice production in major rice producing countries of Asia and Africa can have positive impacts on farm household income, alleviation of poverty, and improvement of the livelihoods of millions. Using household income and expenditure survey (HIES) data from Bangladesh and a stochastic frontier production function estimation approach, we examine the technical efficiency of the rice farmers in Bangladesh. Particular attention is given to abiotic stress factors such as maximum temperature and rainfall. Results indicate that while maximum temperature (drought) alone leads to a significant loss in rice production, both maximum temperature and rainfall (floods) are major contributors to technical inefficiency in Bangladeshi rice farming. On the other hand, household assets and off-farm wages tend to increase technical efficiency.