Year: 2018 | Month: December | Volume 63 | Issue 4
Cost of Cultivation and Profitability of Agriculture in West Bengal: A Study with Special Reference to Backward Region of West Bengal
Samir Show
DOI:10.30954/0424-2513.4.2018.33
Abstract:
Cost of cultivation is an important factor affecting the profitability of agriculture in West Bengal. We have considered here cost of production of six major crops, namely paddy, jute, mustard, potato, til and pulses. Cost of cultivation increased over the years for paddy, potato, jute, mustard, pulses and til. There occurred a decline in percentage of family labour cost (imputed) to total cost of cultivation. It reflects that family labourers are not interested in cultivation of these crops while being devoted to other means of economic livelihood and the cultivators depend more and more on casual labourers for cultivation of those crops. Percentages of fertilizers cost and rental value of owned land also registered increase during this period for these crops. The production cost and returns of different size of landholdings in different crops cultivation have been calculated based on field survey data in the backward region of Paschim Medinipur district. The farmers are getting relatively high net returns or profit from vegetables, mustard and potato cultivation and relatively low returns from paddy cultivation. Higher net income was the main driving force for shifting towards vegetables cultivation. Net return per unit of labour and unit cost of production has been compared with those of cereals and other crops. It was noted that most of the vegetables were more profitable than cereals and other crops.
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