Srivastava, S.K.Yogesh, H.C.2018-06-292018-06-292017-06http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810055900Tobacco is one of the important commercial crops of India and also called as “golden leaf”. It provides employment directly and indirectly to 38 millions of people. As a commercial crop, tobacco forms an important item in the Indian export basket. FCV tobacco accounts for around 85 per cent of total tobacco exports. Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka together have share of 99 per cent of total FCV tobacco production in India. Due to less availability of labour, high cost of inputs and poor farm mechanization, resources may not utilize efficiently. Increasing productivity and thereby reducing costs will greatly enhance the competitiveness of tobacco industry both globally as well as in the domestic market. Therefore, the present study has been conducted with reference to FCV tobacco; to estimate the trend in area, production and productivity, to estimate the cost of and returns from production, to examine the resource use efficiency in cultivation, to enquire into the nature of export and to identify and rank the constraints faced by the growers. The study is based on data collected from 120 FCV tobacco growers of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka purposively selected to represent India, for the year 2015-16 besides, secondary data from 1974-75 to 201516. In order to estimate trend in area, production, productivity and export of FCV tobacco exponential growth function has been employed, to estimate cost and returns the CACP cost concept has been used, MVP of resources are compared with MFC of respective resource to examine resource use efficiency, to identify destinational changes in FCV tobacco exports Markov chain analysis has been done and finally to identify the constraints faced by the growers Garrett’s ranking technique has been used. The results of the study indicated that FCV tobacco occupied 40.24 per cent and 42.25 per cent of the gross cropped area in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, respectively. Cropping intensity has been found to be 187.35 per cent and 191.46 per cent for the respective states. Area under FCV tobacco in Andhra Pradesh remained stagnant during pre and post WTO periods while, that grew in Karnataka in both the periods. Production of FCV tobacco in AP grew at CAGR of 1.48 per cent during post WTO period while, remained stagnant during pre WTO period. Karnataka’s FCV tobacco production grew at 4.25 per cent which is closer to the national growth rate i.e. 4.93. Growth rate of productivity found to be more in AP as compared to Karnataka during pre WTO period. Again, in AP it grew at higher rate than Karnataka during post WTO period. During pre WTO period India’s growth in area under FCV tobacco recorded negative trend at CAGR of (-)2.76 per cent, but production remained stagnant as like AP. Productivity grew at CAGR of 1.84 per cent which is higher than state growth rates for the same period. During post WTO period growth in area, production and productivity registered a CAGR of 3.20, 4.93 and 2.15 per cent in India which is again higher than growth rates of same in the states. The cost of production is found higher in Karnataka ( 1.35,499) as compared to Andhra Pradesh ( 1,30,119) at cost C3. The per hectare net return over cost A1 (Farm Business Income) is estimated 1,10,300 for AP which is lower than Karnataka ( 1,48,460) and on overall basis it is 1,32,151. Returns per rupee invested are 1.50, 1.75 and 1.60 for Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and on overall basis, respectively. The MVP to MFC ratio for human labour has been 10.86 and on P.P. Chemicals is (-)4.28 for Andhra Pradesh against MVP over MFC on human labour is 7.30 for Karnataka indicating that there exists scope for increasing the use of human labour and decrease the use of P.P. Chemicals in FCV tobacco cultivation to realize higher productivity. During post WTO period export of unmanufactured tobacco registered a CAGR of 5.42 per cent in quantity term and in monetary term it registered a CAGR more than twice that of quantity term (12.86 per cent) this is mainly due to increase in international price as it signifies more demand. West Europe followed by Africa and North and South America are the best and loyal importer of unmanufactured tobacco from India. Untimely rainfall followed by scarcity of labour and high cost firewood is the major constraints faced by the FCV tobacco growers. Though FCV tobacco cultivation in the study area has been found to be a profitable venture, more profit can be reaped and the business can be made more efficient if the farmers are provided with more labours, water availability and cheap firewood. India should not depend upon few regions for the exports of FCV/unmanufactured tobacco but it should diversify its trade thereby Indian tobacco can be more competitive and farmers’ profits may be increased.ennullThesis