Economic justification for growing walnut rootstocks (Juglans regia L.)

Abstract

Purpose. To establish economic feasibility of growing walnut rootstocks. Methods. Walnut seedlings, promising as rootstocks in Ukraine, were studied in nurseries IE Zatokovyi V. Yu. (Sloboda Komarivtsi village, Storozhynets district, Chernivtsi region) during 2018–2020. Economic efficiency of growing rootstocks was determined according to the Method of economic and energy assessment of types of fruit and berry plantations, pomological varieties and the results of technological research in horticulture (2002). Results. To determine the economic efficiency of seedling cultivation, the technological map of walnut seedling cultivation was analyzed. The largest share in the structure of costs was accounted for by labor remuneration – 86.7%. The reason was the use of manual labor, which accounted for 96.5% of the total technology of growing seedlings. The level of mechanization of cultivation was only 3.5%. The total fuel consumption per 1 hectare was 120.7 liters, or UAH 2,957.20 in monetary terms. Thus, fuel consumption accounted for a small share – 0.4% of the cost of one seedling. One hectare of land provided an output of 65 thousand pcs of walnut seedlings, which amounted to 1,625 thousand UAH at a cost of 25 UAH/piece. Material costs amounted to 46.16 thousand UAH/ha (total costs – 712.43 thousand UAH). Therefore, the cost was extremely low and the level of profitability was extremely high. Conclusions. Growing walnut seedlings of the varieties ‘Slava Ukrainy’, ‘Pamiati Zatokovoho’, ‘Lysychanskyi’ is economically feasible. This is due to the relatively low cost of one seedling (UAH 10.82) and high profitability of production of the original breeding material for grafting and planting industrial crops.