Economic Analysis of Vegetable Production in Nagrota Bagwan Block of Kangra District of Himachal Pradesh, India

Vegetables occupy an important place in the food basket of the people of Himachal Pradesh. There exist a high demand for these crops in the market. The present study was carried to study the cost and returns of 10 major vegetables grown in Nagrota Bagwan block of Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. The farmers of this block grow vegetable crops on commercial scale so it was purposively selected. Three stage random sampling technique was employed for selection of panchayats, villages and ultimate respondents. Altogether, 60 vegetable cultivating farmers were selected for the study. Labour accounted for more than 50 per cent of the total cost in different vegetables. The net returns were found to be positive and varied from Rs 21027 to Rs 125992 per hectare for different vegetables. The Benefit-Cost ratio was also estimated for different vegetable crops. The ratio varied from 1.33 to 1.60 in kharif to 1.11 to 1.78 in rabi for different vegetables. B-C ratio was greater than one for all the major vegetable crops in the study area indicating that growing of vegetables is a profitable business. The findings of the study revealed that overall farmers of the study area are getting good profits from vegetable production.