A Comparative Economic Analysis of Cucumber and Bitter Gourd Cultivation in Sultanpur District of Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

The present investigation was undertaken to estimate the comparison of costs and returns for cucumber and bitter gourd production. The specific objectives of this study included the profitability of cucumber and bitter gourd as well as identifying the major constraints faced by cucumber and bitter gourd growers. The study was based on primary data which were collected through personal interviews with the help pre-tested survey scheduled. In which, a multistage stratified purposive cum random sampling technique was used to select the district, block, villages, and respondents. The Results indicated that bitter gourd production was profitable crop in comparison to cucumber. Besides, marginal farms’ was shown to be more profitable than small and medium farms according to an analysis of aggregate measures that were calculated for financial efficiency. Moreover, to identify the constraints the Garrett ranking technique was used. From the results, cucurbit farmers faced several issues of managerial, technical, and financial. In which top two most common problems in management & technical faced by them were lack of technical knowledge and unavailability of quality seeds (HYV) and the top two financial problems faced by them were untimely availability of loans and high-interest rates respectively. Major suggestions of cucurbit farmers to overcome these constraints are training being imparted to implement new technologies, credit facilities with low-rate interest by institutional agencies and storage facilities in mandi should be provided to the farmers for their perishable products.