Barito Kuala Regency is one of the tidal swampland type districts consisting of land types A, B and C. The area of rice production land in Barito Kuala Regency is the largest planting area among other districts in South Kalimantan. Rice production in Barito Kuala Regency is 219,962.68 tons, with a harvest area of 57,873 ha. Although the rice production of Barito Kuala Regency is larger than other districts, judging from the productivity value, it is in a fairly low position, even below the productivity of South Kalimantan. Low productivity is suspected to indicate a lack of efficiency in the use of production inputs, because the higher the productivity of eating, the more optimized the ability of the production factor. The objectives of this study are: (1) Identifying the socio-economic characteristics of farmers; and (2) analyzing the level of technical efficiency of superior varieties of rice farmers in theupsand downs of Barito Kuala Regency. The location of this research was carried out in Barito Kuala Regency, with a imp lementation time of March 2025 – June 2025. The types and sources of data used in this study are primary data. Data collection by simple random sampling, on 100 sample farmers in Mandastana and Rantau Badauh Districts. The analysis used is Data Envelopment Analysis to measure relative technical efficiency, which is processed using DEAP 2.1 software. The results of the study stated that the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents in this study were having an average age of 42.35 years, with an average education at junior high school graduation, armed with superior rice farming experience of an average of 5 years and thenumber of dependents as many as 4 people. The results of the Data Envelopment Analysis show that as many as 23% of farmers have operated technically efficiently based on the VRS model. So that 23% of  farmers who operate efficiently become references (peer farmers) for other farmers (77%) to streamline their production inputs.

Highlights

• The study found that most superior rice farmers in Barito Kuala Regency are in their early 40s, with junior high school education, an average of 5 years of farming experience, and households averaging 4 dependents. This demographic context shapes their farming practices and efficiency.
• Only 23% of farmers were technically efficient under the Variable Return to Scale (VRS) model, compared to 12% under the Constant Return to Scale (CRS) model. Efficient farmers serve as benchmarks for the majority (77%) who operate inefficiently, highlighting significant room for improvement in input use.
• Farmers used an average of 0.85 ha of land, 30.73 kg/ha of seeds, 259 kg/ha of solid fertilizer, 302 kg/ ha of lime, and 105 HKO/ha of labor. Scale efficiency analysis revealed that 44% of farmers operated under increasing returns to scale, 43% under decreasing returns to scale, and only 13% at an optimal constant scale, suggesting mismatches between input use and production scale.