ISHS Acta Horticulturae 296: Tropical Fruits, XXIII I.H.C.
COST AND RETURN FROM ORCHARDS IN PUNJAB |
| Author: | J. Singh |
| Abstract:
The Punjab agriculture is fastly becoming cereal dominated and the need for its diversification is seriously felt. Recently, it has been realized that the State has vast potentials for growing fruits. As a result, the area under fruit has increased from 29 thousand hectares in 1981–82 to 53 thousand hectares in 1986–87. The cultivation of citrus, mango, pear, ber and grapes is fetching importance with the farmers. Therefore, an attempt has been made to analyse the economics of different types of orchards. The main findings of the study are as under:- Grape orchard requires heavy establishment cost mainly for setting up of Bower system. Although the grapeviness come in bearing after attaining the age of 2 years, yet the cost continues to dominate the return for first 3 years. In full bearing stage i.e. 5–30 years the annual net return worked out to be Rs. 27,202 per hectare. Among the citrus fruits, kinnow is becoming popular due to its high yield and attractive price in the State. The establishment cost of Kinnow orchard came out to be Rs. 9,113 per hectare while the operational cost per annum varied between Rs. 5,312 and Rs. 8,327. The positive net return start only in the seventh year and go up to Rs. 38,069 per hectare in the ninth year which is assumed to continue for 17 years further. The economics of mango and pear were also worked out which were quite favourable under proper management and resource conditions. However the economics of ber orchards though does not compare favourably with other types of orchards, yet its return is better than common crop rotations on poor soils. The investment on orchards is made mostly in the initial period while the return is expected after a gap of time. Therefore, the present value of future net returns were worked out by discounting at the rate of 10% and 12,5% the prevailing interest rates on fixed deposito and agricultural loans respectively. The analysis indicated that only Kinnow and Grape cultivation is likely to flourish in the near future. | |
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