Economic impact of Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) in Andhra Pradesh, India

The study presented a comprehensive analysis of the impact of farmers' participation in Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) on technical efficiency (TE) and cost of cultivation (CoC) in rice farming. The study employed the data envelopment analysis (DEA) to measure the TE of rice farms. Data for the study were taken from the Kharif 2022 by randomly selecting rice farms across treated and untreated categories. To address endogeneity, the study employed the inverse probability weighting with regression adjustment (IPWRA) and augmented inverse probability weighting (AIPW) methods. These models consistently demonstrate that participation in RBKs lead to significantly higher TE (0.82) compared to untreated farms (0.71) and lower CoC and CoP among treated rice farms, indicating a significant positive impact of RBKs on enhancing resource use efficiency, reducing costs, and improving the competitiveness of rice farming. The study concludes that participating in RBKs have a positive influence on various efficiency measures and cost parameters compared to untreated farms. Based on the findings, the study recommends the need to expand farmers' participation in RBKs, prioritizing initiatives that incentivize and encourage farmers' involvement in RBKs through awareness campaigns, financial incentives, and capacity-building programs as well as implement a robust monitoring and evaluation system to track RBK performance and inform iterative adjustments, and enhance export competitiveness by collaborating with importing countries, adherence to global quality standards, and infrastructure investments.