Costs and returns of sugarcane production: A micro level study of Samastipur and Begusarai districts of Bihar

Abstract

Sugarcane is a prominent cash crop. Present investigation was carried out to assess costs and returns in sugarcane cultivation in two leading sugarcane growing districts, Samastipur and Begusarai in Bihar as Hasanpur Sugar mill is located in the study area. Multistage sampling technique was applied for selection of sample respondents. The result revealed that the total cost of sugarcane cultivation was estimated to be Rs. 154968.57/ha. The operational cost was found to be Rs.92079.63/ha, constituting 59.42% of the total cost. Overhead cost came out to be Rs. 62888.93/ha and accounted for 40.58% of the total cost of cultivation of sugarcane. It was also observed that the total cost of cultivation increased as the farm size increased. Human labour cost came out as an important cost with a share of 17.01% of the total cost followed by transportation charge 9.87%, seed cost 7.91%. Inter farm size-wise comparison of different item of cost revealed that the cost of human labour decreased with increasing farm size while expenditure on machine labour showed the reverse trend. The overall B:C were estimated to be 2.40, 2.25, 2.37, 1.54, 2.11, 1.42 and 1.29 on the basis of costs A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, and C3, respectively. B:C on the basis of cost C3for different size group of farms were found to be 1.19, 1.36, 1.18and 1.44. Net return over Cost A1 and costA2 for all the farm size groups was found to be Rs.128724.60/ha and Rs. 122729.50/ha, respectively and over Cost C1, cost C2 and cost C3were worked out to be Rs115973.50, Rs. 65678.37 and Rs.50181.08 per hectare, respectively. Sugarcane production was found profitable in the study area. State government initiatives towards formation and implementation of state advised price (SAP) could also make sugarcane cultivation more remunerative. Being a labour intensive crop would certainly help in enhancing socio-economic status of poor peasants of India.