AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF SUGARCANE BASED INTERCROPPING SYSTEM IN EAST-CHAMPARAN DISTRICT OF BIHAR
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Date
2021
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DRPCAU, PUSA
Abstract
India is the world largest producer of sugar accounts for 19.14 per cent of the world production. India achieved a record of 414.20 million tonnes production of sugarcane in 2018-19 from an area about 5.50 million hectares.Populationgrowth across the globe and diminishing arable land on account of urbanization has created needs for searching alternative ways to enhance crop productivity and boost the economicreturns per unit land for feeding such a huge population. Sugarcane cultivation is done having wide spaces among rows and is a long duration crop and gives late net returns. Intercropping in sugarcane has received much attention and could be helpful in gettingoptimum net returns from same unit area with proper management practices. East Champaran district of Bihar is the second largest sugarcane growing district and farmers in the district are practising various intercropping systems with sugarcane. Hence, the present study "An economic analysis of sugarcane based intercropping system in East-Champaran district of Bihar"wascarried out to assess the socio-economic characteristics, identification of the existing sugarcane based intercropping system, to estimate the cost and return, access the employment pattern and to identify the constraints faced by the farmers in sugarcane based intercropping system in the study area.
The study is based on primary data collected for the agricultural year 2019-20 keeping in mind the objectives of the study. A list of farmers growing sugarcane based intercrops was prepared and thereafter, altogether 120 farmers from two blocks of the district were randomly selected.
The result clearly pointed out that small farmer put more area under sugarcane cultivation and were regarded as dominant sugarcane grower in the study area as
compared to the medium and large farmers. It wasalso observed thatonly 88.33 per cent sample farmers were literate and rest 11.67 per cent were illiterate.
Existing sugarcane based intercropping system indicated that majority of sample sugarcane growers cultivated CS-I (sugarcane + potato), followed by CS-II(sugarcane + mustard) in autumn season and CS-III (sugarcane + green gram) in spring season.It was observed that sugarcane + potato was the most prominent intercrop in the study area.
Comparative costs and returns analysis under different cropping system revealed that the total cost of cultivation per hectare (cost A) was found to be high in CS-I, (Rs 1,60,032.45 ha-1), followed by CS-III, (Rs 1,26,703.38 ha-1), CS-II (Rs1,25,931.39 ha-1) and lowest on CS-IV(Rs1,17,994.02 ha-1), whereas total cost of cultivation over (cost B) was highest in CS-I (Rs 2,01,529.56 ha-1), followed by CS-III (Rs 1,64,489.85 ha-1), CS-II (Rs 1,63,675.79 ha-1) and lowest in CS-IV (Rs 1,51,519.63 ha-1) sole crop.The total cost of cultivation per hectare over (cost C) was estimated to be the highest in CS-I (Rs 2,29,736.70ha-1), followed by cropping system III (Rs 1,89,351.36 ha-1) and lowest on (Rs 1,71,642.52 ha-1) on cropping system IV (sugarcane sole crop).
The gross return wascalculated to be the larger in case of CS-I (Rs 5,86,170.36 ha-1), followed by CS-II (Rs 4,03,253.87 ha-1), CS-III (Rs 3,79,212.58 ha-1) and CS-IV sole crop (Rs 2,90,529.66 ha-1), the net returns per hectare over cost A and cost C were found to be relatively high in CS-I being (Rs 4,26,137.91 ha-1) & (Rs 3,56,433.60 ha-1) followed by CS-II (Rs 2,77,322.48 ha-1) & (Rs 2,17,774.91 ha-1), CS III (Rs 2,52,509.20 ha-1) & (Rs 1,89,861.22 ha-1) and CS-IV (Rs 1,72,535.64 ha-1) & (Rs 1,18,887.14 ha-1), respectively.Thus, it may be opined from above findings that CS-I (sugarcane +Potato) wasobserved more profitable on account of high productivity and remunerative for main crop as well as intercrops as compared to other cropping systems followed in the study area.
Employment generation underfour intercropping systems in study area revealed that CS-I per hectare employment creation under sugarcane based intercropping system was found to be higher(251.56 mandays) followed by CS-III (221.30 mandays), CS-II (209.57mandays) and lowest in CS-IV (206.64mandays) per hectare. The cultivation of sugarcane based intercropping systems which werelabour intensive farming in the area under consideration.
The constraints associated with different cropping systems under study were identified as the major constraint like unavailability of labour during peak season, resulting in high labour wage rate during peak season and scarcity of labour also on account of engagement under MANREGA during production of sugarcane under different cropping systems in the study area. Further,unavailability of fertilizersin time was ranked as the second major constraint as it was identified by the farmers during production of sugarcane under different cropping systems under study. Besides these major constraints, the other less severe problem were also observed like damage by animal, unavailability of improved verities of seeds, high cost of production, pest and disease infestation and expenses on improved technology.