A Study on Level of Input and Economics of Production of Groundnut in Gujarat

Abstract

Groundnut, popularly known as peanut, which is one of the important kharif oilseed crop and its botanical name is Arachis hypogea. India ranks second next to China in terms of production. During 2019-20, groundnut was cultivated under 31.57 million hectares producing 53.64 million tonnes groundnuts in the world. India ranked first in term of area, with 15.30 per cent share to the world acreage followed by China (14.57%) and Nigeria (12.89%). Keeping all these things in view, the researcher has decided to conduct a study entitled to study level of input and economics of production of groundnut in Gujarat and objective of the study was to study level of input and economics of production for groundnut. A multistage sampling was adopted as appropriate sampling procedure for the study. In the first stage, out of thirty-three districts, seven districts were selected purposively according to the highest command area of groundnut cultivation. In the second stage, two talukas from each selected district were chosen purposively. In the third stage, two villages from each selected taluka were selected randomly. In the fourth stage, twelve respondents were selected randomly from each selected village. Thus, a total of 336 respondents were selected for the study. As regards analytical tools, following techniques were used to analyse the stipulated objectives, i.e. calculation of cost and returns, Cobb-Douglas production function and MVP/MC ratio. All type of farm size group used more groundnut seeds than the recommended seed rate except marginal farmers. Nitrogen and Phosphorus usage were higher than the recommended doses by all type of farm size group. Manure usage were half of the recommended doses by selected farmers. Medium, semi medium and large farmers return per ha over cost A and cost B was higher than small and marginal farmers. Input-output ratio was observed highest in case of large farmers (1.69) over cost C2, followed by medium farmers (1.68). Farmers over utilize of inputs for groundnut production like seed, fertilizer, bullock labour and irrigation, Whereas, farmers underutilize of inputs for groundnut production like farm equipment, PPC, human labour and manure. Farmers of the selected area were ignoring recommended package of practices and new technologies. Hence, proper and timely training should be provided to groundnut farmers to create awareness about recommended package of practices and new technologies to the groundnut farmers by involving the extension activities and extension personnel through arranging farmers meetings, field level demonstrations, meeting with progressive farmers etc.