The areas to look for efficiency in cropping systems are 1) economics 2) energetics 3) environmental. To do this most effectively requires experiments or long term trials which are contrasted in randomized and replicated fashion. Another approach is to select farmers who employ different farming approaches and sample their results in these areas. You may want to take a look at Fibl long term experimentation and Rodale Institiute Farming Systems trial for non profit focusing on organic systems and also look to big Land Grant Universities in United States or in Canada Europe and South American for their experience. Many of the conventional field crop systems have led to lowering of soil resources and water quality issues and are not sustainable. There are both organic and conventional approaches which can be both economic, energetically sound and can improve environmental results. 

Also try to look at the economics of a new cropping pattern in comparison with the  replaced cropping pattern in terms of the marketability, quick selling facility ( delay in selling affects the day to day survival of the farmers) or quick money in hand arrangement etc.  

Dear Faisal, the variables calculating technical efficiency would depend upon the socio-cultural environment. For selecting suitable variables you can do a pre-test at char land. However, you can estimate technical efficiency of such cropping system particularly watermelon by using Maximum Likelihood estimates of the stochastic frontier production function (CD production function/TL production function). You can also see my paper on Technical Efficiency of Shrimp Farming in Bangladesh: An

Application of the Stochastic Production Frontier Approach.

Technical efficiency of a cropping system in short term is calculated with economics and energy by computing to the grain equivalent of the dominant crop in the region. In long run it is soil improvement, sustainability, economics, energy needs of the family for daily use and so on including crop rotation, market price are considered.

Dear Faisal,

The technical efficiency can be estimated using data envelope analysis, DEA, (non-parametric approach) and stochastic frontier approach (parametric) approach. If you get a good fit in case of Cob-Douglas function or Trans log production function, then it is better to go for the two-stage stochastic frontier model, which will give estimates of technical efficiency as well the results of factor determining the efficiency level (see: http://www.academicjournals.org/journal/AJAR/article-full-text/63F68EA48516).   Otherwise estimation of technical efficiency using DEA is advisable, however, here, for indentifying the factor affecting the level of efficiency, Tobit model can be used (see: http://www.currentscience.ac.in/Volumes/109/10/1831.pdf).  Since you want to estimate the technical efficiency of cropping system then opt for multi-input and multi-output models.

I think, it's important to appreciate not only the technical efficiency, but globally the economic efficiency. Economic efficiency = technical efficiency + allocative efficiency. If the cropping systems are economically efficient, then they are also technically efficient. In practice, it's easier to measure the allocative efficiency and the economic efficiency. A cropping sytem is allocatively efficient if the ratios of the marginal productivity in value for the considered production factors divided by their prices are the same. This cropping system will be economically efficient if all these ratios are equal to 1.

Abul , technical efficiency of a cropping system , you  can evaluate  in terms of agronomic efficiency , economic efficiency ( Net returns) , soil health sustenance vis-à-vis soil ecology  , ecological service , livelihood  development and security , and lastly in terms of land equivalent ratio  and land use efficiency .

Dear Abul,

As a basic approach: unit of input used/unit output produced.

Regards,

Alfredo J. Escribano.

Dear Abul please look at this thesis. 

AN ANALYSIS OF TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF

CROP FARMS IN THE NORTHERN REGION OF

VIETNAM

http://www.canberra.edu.au/researchrepository/file/065ddce3-edef-4a68-9a5a-a6eac2be3c7b/1/full_text.pdf

Just to add to Suresh Kumar's suggestions that the software for stochastic frontier is called frontier.

Dear Abul,

There is a large literature on the measurement of the technical efficiency of production systems of specific crops and this could also be applied to watermelon  cultivation in the area you are interested in. As pointed out above such analysis  can then be extended to include economic efficiency and also environmental efficiency (see for example de Koeijer et al., 2002).

Please be aware that:

• The use of partial efficiency measures can result in spurious results. For example, with a simple ratio such as input per unit of output it is not easy to identify factors that influence this measure. A change in this ratio might represent either a change in the mix of other inputs or changes in output, or some combination. Furthermore, if the input used to judge output performance is changed then the efficiency assessment derived can be significantly altered (Fraser and Cordina, 1999). DEA has a systems approach that takes account of the relationship between multiple inputs and output simultaneously and it stays  close to the agronomic perspective (see for example Denaux and Wossink, 2006).
• when using farm survey data  differences in technical efficiency be can influenced by other factors including soils, nutrient and pest management practices, operator characteristics, irrigation practices etc. Specifically for watermelon in the Noakhali char area in Bangladesh please see https://www.sussex.ac.uk/webteam/gateway/file.php?name=bangladesh-final-report.pdf&site=11. Thus production conditions are not equal in farm surveys. In a follow up regression analysis differences in production environment and in farm, farmer and field characteristics can be accounted for to help explain the differences in technical efficiency.

De Koeijer, T.J., Wossink, G.A., Struik, P.C. and Renkema, J.A. (2002) Measuring Agricultural Sustainability in Terms of Efficiency, Journal of Environmental Management 66: 9-17. ATTACHED

Fraser,I.,  D. Cordina (1999) An application of data envelopment analysis to irrigated dairy farms in Northern Victoria, Australia, Agricultural Systems, 59 (3): 267–282. ATTACHED 

Wossink, A. and Z. Denaux (2006) Environmental and Cost Efficiency of Pesticide Use in Transgenic and Conventional Cotton Production, Agricultural Systems 90(1-3): 312-328. ATTACHED

Article Environmental and Cost Efficiency of Pesticide Use in Transg...

Article Measuring agricultural sustainability in terms of efficiency...

Article An Application of Data Envelopment Analysis to Irrigated Dai...

Ample literature available on the estimation of TE. The most widely used is the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). The other option is stochastic frontier. If you have limited data i.e, less number of farmers/farm, DEA is highly suggested relative to the stochastic frontier. Better the quality of data on inputs used and output produced, higher is the reliability of TE scores.

For TE estimation  you can use the free software available on http://www.uq.edu.au/economics/cepa/software.php

You already have several suggestions, some of which involve sophisticated econometric analyses. The conclusions will still be open to questions. If you are happy with less involved analysis, you could work out the net returns of the competing crops taking into account all products (including by-products) of each crop and all inputs evaluated at market prices. subsidies should count as cost. If you are not an expert yourself ask such a person about the environmental or agronomic impact of each crop and net this out of the net returns. The final net returns give you an indication of comparative technical-cum-economic efficiency of these crops.

Dear Abul............

You can express all technical value in terms of Money. Similarly other involvement in money. Then simply calculate % of Technical efficiency in terms of Money or Dollars.

Thanks.

Dr. M.A.K. Mian

PSO

BARI

Bangladesh.

The standard method would be to examine if this cropping pattern ensures the highest net return among all possible patterns. However, some cropping patterns with lower return may be more efficient in terms of preserving soil quality and minimizing  environmental damage. These effects become evident only in the long run, and the farmers are not likely to include them in current net return calculations. An example is shrimp cultivation which is alleged to have significant negative impact on soil quality and environment, but is nonetheless attractive to the farmers. Netting out these costs are difficult and often subjective. Your research could be very innovative.

Thanks for a time demanding questio. I am so glad to know such a huge suggestions from expert of thebworld.Thanks to all.