Excerpts from the report: The major objective of this study is to develop information on relative efficiency of operations in different size rice mills as an approach to increasing marketing efficiency. The study is based on a sample of 33 mills in the South. Among the secondary objectives are the following: (1) To determine the major cost items in processing and marketing rice during the rice milling season of 1956-57; (2) to determine the factors related to variations in costs or major cost groups among different mills, and (3) to determine the relationship which prevailed between costs and individual factors responsible for variations in costs among different mills.