Comparative economic analysis of soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] cultivation under natural, organic and conventional methods in Karnataka, India

Abstract

Soybean plays an important role in edible oil economy and it a rich source of proteins (40%), carbohydrates(35%) and edible oil (20%), besides several minerals and vitamins. This study was carried out used both primaryand secondary data in North-Eastern Transition Zone of Karnataka during 2020-21 by adoptingmultistage sampling procedure with the total sample size of sixty farmers with the main objective of analysing the economic viability of natural farming via alia organic and conventional farming. The major finding of the study was that conventional farming gave the highest net returns of `15464 and a B:C ratio of 1.84 compared to organic and natural farming. The cost of cultivation of natural farming was `16062 and it was less than conventional farming (13.10%) and organic farming (14.94%). The net return was highest in conventional farming and was higher than organic (12.77%) and natural farming (19.92%). The study suggests policy measures such as research and development activities should be focus more towards sustainable crop variety and technology to improve the yields under natural farming. There is a need of government policy support for certification and setting premium minimum support price for natural products in order to encourage the farmers for natural farming.