Comparative economics of conservation versus conventional agricultural practices in Haryan
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Date
2014
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Publisher
Division of Agricultural Economics Indian Agricultural Research Institute New Delhi
Abstract
Indian agricultural sector has undergone several significant changes since
independence. Introduction of high yielding varieties associated with better package
of practices, mechanization and diversification of the production system during the
green revolution period have raised crop yield and farm income significantly.
Haryana is one of the leading state where these transformations still continue. The
conventional mode of agriculture through intensive agricultural practices was
successful in achieving target of food production, but simultaneously led to
degradation of natural resources and environment. Conservation agriculture can be
seen as a new way for enhancing productivity and conserving resources in order to
achieve the goal of sustainable agriculture. The study of existing scenario for various
conservation agricultural practices and their economic feasibility shows that the zero
tillage and laser levelling practice are most popular among the farmers. The adoption
pattern shows that large farmer easily adopted the conservation agriculture compared
to small and medium farmer. The comparative study of cost of cultivation of wheat
found that cultivation under zero tillage was more profitable, due to lower cost
incurred towards human labour, machine labour, seed and irrigation. Benefit cost
ratio for wheat cultivation under zero tillage was 2.01 which was higher than other
conventional agricultural practices which shows that it’s economically feasibile over
others practices in study area.
The Cobb-Douglas production function was used to analyze the allocative
efficiency. Analysis shows that the allocative efficiency of wheat cultivation under
zero tillage, rotavator and conventional mode were less than one, indicating
resources were over utilized. The stochastic frontier production function analysis
showed that the mean technical efficiency of wheat cultivation under zero tillage
cultivation system was 96 per cent, under rotavator it was 95 per cent and in
conventional method it was 94 per cent. It showed that if resources are optimally
used than the gross return can be increased by 4, 5 and 6 percent in zero tillage,
rotavator and conventional mode of wheat cultivation respectively. Economic
efficiency in zero tillage was 62 per cent and it indicated that there is a scope to
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increase the returns by 38 per cent with optimum allocation of resources. Economic
efficiency was 52 per cent under rotavator and 34 per cent under conventional
system of wheat cultivation.
The determinants for practicing conservation agriculture in wheat were
reduction in cost, higher income, and ownership of equipment, timely sowing,
government promotion policy and subsidies. Availability of rotavator, high cost of
machine and non availability of machine were major constraints of conservation
agriculture in wheat among farmers in study area.
Description
t-9025
Keywords
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