Economic Performance and Consraints Faced by Tur Dal Processing Units- Bharuch District, Gujarat

Abstract

The study of economic performance of Tur dal processing units in terms of cost is very essential for accelerating the growth of agriculture processing industries. The present study was undertaken to work out the unit fixed costs, variable costs, production costs and returns of processing of Tur dal and different constraints faced by Tur dal processors of Bharuch District of Gujarat. The primary data pertained to consecutive three years i.e., 2017-18, 2018-2019, and 2019-20 were collected from the sample of three Tur dal mills from Bharuch, Ankleshwar and Vaghra talukas of Bharuch district. The results indicated that the average capital investment for a dal mill per unit was Rs. 7, 10, 00,000. The average fixed cost and average variable cost per quintal was of INR 46.10 and 245.46 respectively. Hence, average processing cost per quintal was worked out to be Rs. 291.56. The gross return per quintal of processed tur dal was Rs. 5754.50. The average content of tur dal and by- products was in the proportion of 72 per cent and 28 per cent respectively, by weight. The recovery in one quintal of tur was 65 kg of tur dal, 7 kg of broken dal and 28 kg of chala/chuni/ dead seed. The net returns per quintal after processing was found to be Rs. 579.61. It was found that, inadequate supply of raw material for processing especially during off season was the major constraint faced by the dal mill owners followed by units not running on full capacity utilization during offseason and irregular electricity supply to run the unit, etc.