Economic Appraisal of Kharif and Zaid Paddy in Tarai Region of Uttarakhand Raghav Shalini1,*, Sen Chandra2 1Division of Agricultural Economics, Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi-110012, India 2Department of Agricultural Economics, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India *Corresponding author: raghav.shalini9@gmail.com
Online published on 3 December, 2015. Abstract The main aim of this study is to measure the profitability of paddy crop grown in Kharif and Zaid season. To estimate the profitability, the cost of cultivation and returns has been worked out on per hectare basis for Kharif and Zaid paddy for each category of farmers and compared with the CACP concept. The study is based on the primary data collected from 100 sample farmers of tarai region of Uttarakhand. Among all the districts, Udham Singh Nagar district is selected purposively as this district has the highest production of paddy in the state. Among both the paddy crops, in general, cost of cultivation ( /ha) of Zaid paddy was higher than that of Kharif paddy. On an average, farmers in the study area experienced net profit on Kharif paddy and Zaid paddy was 16578.01 and 20043.98 per hectare, respectively. Due to availability of rain water in Kharif season, expenditure on irrigation for Kharif paddy was found to be significantly lower than the expenditure on irrigation for Zaid season paddy. It is also found that all the categories of farmers were more conscious about seed and fertilizer use in paddy. Total interest amount on fixed capital of large farmers was found to be higher than that of other categories of farmers, which reveals that farm asset position of large farmers was better than other categories of farmers in the study area. On an average, farmers of the study area had to spend 745.75 and 725.63, for producing one quintal of Kharif paddy and Zaid paddy, respectively, which was less than the average price received by the farmers for these crops. Average price received by the farmers was 1001.88 and 1006.25 per quintal for Kharif paddy and Zaid paddy, respectively. Thus, it can be concluded that cultivating paddy grown in Kharif and Zaid was profitable for the farmers in the study area. This is true not only for average sample farmer but also for all categories of farmers of the study area. Top Keywords Profitability, kharif, zaid, paddy, tarai region. Top |