| Summary: | Paddy farming industry is a national issue as sufficient paddy production is important under food security in Malaysia. Paddy farming in The Northwest Selangor Integrated Agricultural Development Area (IADA) is one of the main paddy producers in Malaysia which also contributes to the surrounded districts' economic development. Efforts to ensure continuous paddy supply includes subsidies provision to paddy farmers, provided by government to ensure the sustainability of paddy production in Malaysia. However, recent statistics shows that there is a decreasing trend in the amount of paddy production despite a large amount of money spent in paddy sector. Therefore, it is important to benchmark the performance of paddy farming industry as part of accountability. One aspect of performance that could be measured is the technical efficiency of the paddy farming which can indicates the ability of paddy farmer's to maximize the output based on utilized inputs. In this study, Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is used to measure the level of technical efficiency of IADA's paddy farming using three input variables (including expenses of seeds, expenses of fertilizers and salary of workers) and one output variable consisting of yield of paddy farm. Particularly, the objectives of this study are firstly to measure the technical efficiencies of paddy farmers across two seasons, (i.e., dry and wet seasons) and secondly to compare the technical efficiencies of paddy farmers across 8 regions located in IADA. A primary dataset was collected from a random sample of 100 farmers residing IADA area through using a survey. The results showed the technical efficiency of paddy farming in IADA (i.e., equivalent to 73.8 percent) was significantly higher as compared to the technical efficiency performance during wet season (i.e., equivalent to 64.8 percent). Further investigation also showed that there was a significant difference in terms of paddy farmers' efficiency performance across the 8 regions in IADA. Specifically, Sekinchan and Sarang Burong were found to be consistently top two efficiency regions in paddy farming across dry and wet seasons. © 2024 Author(s).
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