Cost and Returns of Chilly Cultivation in Ramnad District of Tamilnadu

Abstract

Chilly is one of the most important commercial crops occupies an area of 8.34 lakh hectares in India with production of 8.47 lakh tones. In Tamil Nadu the chilly was cultivated in 67.14 thousand hectares during 2007-08 leading to a production of 341 thousand tones. Ramnad district stood first both in area under chilly cultivation and production. The area, productivity and yield of chilly show wide variations from time to time. This affects the progress and prosperity of the chilly farmers which depend on the cost and returns structure of the crops raised by them. The present study endeavors to examine the cost and returns structure of chilly cultivation in Ramnad district of TamilNadu with the objectives of to analyze the cost and return structure of chilly cultivation, to examine the relative efficiently of inputs in the cultivation process of chilly and to study the inequalities in the net income per acre in the cultivation of chilly in Ramnad district. The regression coefficients of all the inputs are positive for production of chilly which indicates that there is great scope of increasing production of chilly by increasing the use of inputs. The MVP has been found greater than unity for seeds, fertilizers, insecticides and irrigation. This indicates that the added return at this level is higher than the additional cost incurred for the additional unit of land. The MVP of land preparation cost, labour and organic manure has lower than the unity which indicates that there is over expense on these inputs.