International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development

author(s)
Mrinmoyee Sharma, Ashish S Noel, Pranil Sunil Kale and Mukesh K Maurya

abstract
The tea industry in Assam, a vital component of India’s agricultural landscape, has undergone a significant transformation with the growing prominence of small tea growers. The study, entitled "An Economic Evaluation of the Resource Use Efficiency of Small Tea Growers of Assam," aims to assess the efficiency of resource utilization in green tea leaf production by small-tea growers. Focusing on Tinsukia and Dibrugarh districts—two districts with major concentration of small tea grower, the study employed a multi-stage random sampling technique to select a representative sample of 197 growers. Primary and secondary sources of data were utilized in the research. The Cobb-Douglas production function was applied to evaluate how effectively resources are used by the small-tea growers in the sample. The study analysed patterns of input use and identifies resource gaps that impact productivity. The sum of the output elasticities (Σ??) for each category exceeded 1, indicating that all groups experienced increasing returns to scale. The results of the investigation highlighted that there was positive correlation between inputs and the yield which was indicated by the coefficient of multiple determination (R²) across all categories of growers.