Abstract : Making externally provided support services more accessible to smallholder rice farmers would improve farmer attitude, profits and production efficiency. In this study, the attitude, profitability, and resource use efficiency of smallholder rice farmers in the Sumkar District of Madang Province, Papua New Guinea, were investigated. Cross-sectional input-output data collected from 16 farmers were analyzed using Likert scaling to estimate attitude scores, cost accounting to compute costs of production and returns, and a Cobb-Douglas production function to estimate output elasticities and resource use efficiency indices of inputs used. The results indicated that smallholder farmers had favorable attitudes toward rice production, which was economically profitable. However, production was dependent on family labor, which accounted for 75% of the total cost of production. The cash costs incurred for transport accounted for the balance in the cost of production. The elasticity coefficient of land was positive, significant (P<0.01), and greater than 1, indicating an increased productivity effect of land on output milled rice. The elasticity of family labor was negative but significant (P<0.10), indicating a decline in the productivity of this input. The computed resource use efficiency indices indicated that land was over utilized, while labor and transport were underutilized in smallholder rice cultivation. Overall, farmers faced decreasing returns to scale. The management option to improve smallholder farmers’ income, family food security, local production, and reduce rice imports is to improve the efficiency of resource use, access to agricultural extension, rice milling, transport, and marketing services. As the sample size was small, further studies are required.