Vol. 12, Issue 5 (2023)

Author(s):
Saurav D Vahora, Shiv Raj Singh and RK Joshi

Abstract:
The study was conducted at Banaskantha districts of North Gujarat region which account 73.70% of the total mustard area of the state. Taluka, villages and sample farmers was selected by adopting multistage sampling technique. Two Talukas were purposively selected from Banaskantha district viz., Tharad and Dhanera. Five villages were randomly selected from each selected taluka. Twelve mustard growing farmers were selected randomly from each selected village. Thus, total of 2 talukas, 10 villages and 120mustard growing farmers were selected for study. For this study total of 20 market functionaries were randomly selected from Dhanera and Lakhani regulated markets. Ten processors were selected from Banaskantha district. The primary data were collected by using well designed pre-tested interview schedule for the Rabi season of 2021-22. The secondary data were collected from the records of Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, GoI, and Directorate of Horticulture, GoG, Gandhinagar. In Banaskantha district the average total cost of cultivation (cost C₂) per hectare on mustard farms was ₹ 49275.18. It was highest (₹ 49590.16) on large farms and lowest (₹ 48917.86) on small farms.The average gross and net returns per hectare on mustard farms amounted to ₹ 110983.56 and ₹61708.35, respectively. Major cost components were cost of irrigation (16.75%), followed by family labours(16.68%), hired human labour (12.67%),miscellaneous cost (9.79%),rental value of owned land (8.70%), tractor & machineries (7.09%), fertilizers (5.15%), manure (4.60%), seeds (2.93%), interest on fixed capital(2.07%), plant protection (1.55%), interest on working capital (1.54%), and deprecation on farm implements (1.39%). Cost of production per quintal of mustard was ₹ 2593.43 and farmers obtained ₹2.25 over one rupee from mustard cultivation.