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Subject: Agricultural Economics × Author: Dhillon, Harsimranjeet kaur × End date: 2009 × Start date: 2007 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Kinnow as an Economic Alternative for Diversification in South- western Districts of Punjab State
    (Punjab Agricultural University, 2009) Dhillon, Harsimranjeet kaur; Sidhu, R.S.
    Diversification of Punjab agriculture from foodgrains to high value crops such as fruits and vegetables seems to be an important solution for the emerging ecological problems like declining water table, soil fertility and air, water and soil pollution. The present study was taken up to examine the economic viability, problems and potential in terms of production and marketing of kinnow fruits as an alternative to paddy-wheat and cotton-wheat rotation in south- western districts of Punjab. The multistage random sampling was used for the present study, consisting of six blocks, 12 villages, 120 farmers and different market functionaries at different stages of sample selection in the three local markets viz. Abohar, Malout and Maur and big kinnow consuming markets of Delhi and Ludhiana. The establishment cost was higher for the large orchards (Rs 24755/ ha) as compared to medium (Rs 21020/ha) and small (Rs 19515/ha) orchards due to higher establishment costs. The small farmers incurred higher operational cost as compared to medium and large farmers. The annual average return was observed to be higher for large orchards followed by medium and small. The seasonal indices signified that kinnow price showed relatively less elastic response to arrivals as demand was more than supply especially in consuming market. The kinnow growers suffered a loss by selling produce to pre-harvest contractors as their share in consumer’s rupee was low (about 30 %). The case study farmers incurred lower cost on establishment and other production operations but they still obtained better yields, earned higher gross and net income as compared to the sampled orchards in each category. The farmers faced acute shortage of quality planting material, inept marketing facilities and high incidence of insets/pests causing economic loss to kinnow crop. The study showed that kinnow cultivation was more profitable than the existing crop rotations and can emerge as an important source of crop diversification in south- west belt of the Punjab state.