Agricultural Economics Research Review
Year : 2021, Volume : 34, Issue : conf
First page : ( 217) Last page : ( 218)
Print ISSN : 0971-3441. Online ISSN : 0974-0279.

Agricultural roadmaps and the sustainability of commercial crop profitability and enhanced farm income levels on smallholder farming in Bihar

Sharma A K, Kumar Sumit, Prakash Brahm

Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research, Lucknow-226 002

Online Published on 16 March, 2022.

Abstract

The paper aims to assess the impact of policy changes in Bihar for enhancing the farm profitability and income of smallholder farmers. The paper is based on an analysis of crop cultivation behaviour of 36 smallholder farmers for two time periods of 3 years each, i.e. 2014–15 to 2016–17 (period 1) and 2017–18 to 2019–20 (period 2) in Vaishali district. The smallholders who were following the conventional cropping pattern of rice-wheat earlier shifted to commercial cropping (brinjal, tobacco, flowers, vegetables) during period 1 by allocating 42% of the area to commercial crops under the influence of new policy initiatives. The main factors responsible for this shift was the need for cash flows on daily basis, the awareness creation with the opening of more fertilizers and pesticides sale points, and the easy availability of the leased-in land. The change towards commercial cropping resulted in higher profitability and farm income. The farm income generated was Rs.4.0 lakh per ha in period 1 and was 5.42 times more than under conventional farming in period 2. The casual labour absorption during this period was also quite high, 190 days per farm (317 days per ha) and the casual labour use was to the extent of 79.2% of the total labour requirement. The farm prices were lower than the declared MSPs except for the pulses. The same smallholders abandoned the commercial cropping to a greater extent in period 2. The main reasons responsible for shifting back to conventional cropping was the poor rainwater drainage on account of uplands and contiguous lowlands resulting in continuous flooding ranging from a week to a month-long period, and the very low prices of commercial vegetable crops during one year. To sustain the commercial cropping and higher incomes, strengthening of market infrastructures like cold storages, agro-processing units, crop-based support services and market intelligence. Further, the village/block level drainage-cum-irrigation works need to be designed and massive investment is required to execute the ground-level works under qualified technical supervision and as a major inter-departmental project or an MGNREGA work for increasing farm income as well as non-farm employment in the area. Locally developed institutional mechanisms for organizing supplies of smallholders also need to be integrated with a formal mechanism like FPOs to reap the synergies in production and marketing.

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