An Economic Analysis of Bidi Tobacco Cultivation in Belgaum District, Karnataka

Abstract

The present study was conducted to examine the production aspects of bidi tobacco cultivation in Belgaum district of Karnataka state. The required information was collected from 40 sole tobacco farmers (Cropping System-I) and 40 famers growing tobacco as intercrop with sorghum (Cropping System-II) from the study area. The results indicated that per acre net return realized under CS-II was higher (Rs. 37,549) compared to CS-I (Rs. 28,480). Labour cost constitutes the major share in total cost of cultivation of tobacco, which was followed by the marketing cost. Production function analysis revealed that in CS-I, gross income was significantly and positively influenced by fertilizer, human labour, animal labour, machinery hours and seedling cost, where as in case of CS-II, fertilizer, animal labour and human labour were found to be statistically significant. In both CS-I and CS-II situations, fertilizer, FYM and GM, human labour and bullock labour were not used optimally, suggesting that there was still scope for increasing use of these resources to get increased returns. It can be inferred that, the efforts should be made to encourage farmers to adopt intercropping system to enhance their income which will also avoid the risk of crop failure.