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Deepak Kumar Patel

The present investigation was carried out at different villages of Ramgargh, Gola and Chitrapur blocks of Ramgarh district during January-2011 to May-2011 with the help of questionnaires and interview among the selected farmers.

Different horticultural crops such as potato, tomato, cauliflower, radish, carrot, okra, cucurbits (bottle gourd, cucumber and sponge gourd), cowpea, coriander, colocasia, ginger, garlic, lablab bean, French bean, palak (Spinach), brinjal, chilli etc. were cultivated by the selected farmers of Kaitha and Kothar (Ramgarh block); Chhotaki Pona and Chhotaki Lari (Chitarpur block) and Chakarwali and Chokad (Gola block) villages.

The benefit cost ratio for the tomato was the highest (3.98) for modern farmers of Kaitha followed by 2.08 (in cauliflower) while it was only 1.75 (in tomato) and once again 1.75 (in cauliflower) for conventional farmers of the same village because the modern farmers accepted the advantages of adopting high yielding hybrids or improved varieties for those crops. Likewise, the selected modern category of farmers of Kothar village extracted more profit by growing different horticultural crops than their respective conventional counterparts. For example, in the case of cucurbits (bottle gourd) the benefit cost ratio was the highest (4.91) for modern farmers whereas it was only (2.59) for conventional farmers of Kothar village. The lowest benefit cost ratio of 2.35 was recorded in colocasia among the crops grown by the selected modern category of farmers of Kothar as against only (1.84) for the conventional category of farmers from the same crop. The conventional category of the selected farmers was not getting more profit by growing different crops as compared to modern category of farmer in almost all cases of these two villages because the conventional farmers were reluctant to accept new technologies for cultivation of different crops. The maximum net profit of Rs.56944.44 per acre was recorded in cucurbits grown by the modern category of farmers of Kaitha village as against only Rs.34393.62 by the conventional counterparts from the same crop. On the contrary, the lowest net profit of Rs. 33520.83 was witnessed in onion grown by the modern category of farmers of Kothar village while only Rs. 15406.25 was recorded in the case of conventional farmers of the Kothar village in onion.

The benefit cost ratio of 3.59 was for cauliflower in the case of modern category of farmers of Chhotaki Pona whereas it was only 1.64 for the conventional category of the selected farmers. The lowest benefit cost ratio of 2.40 was recorded in onion among the crops grown by the selected modern category of farmers of this village as against only (1.41) for the conventional category of farmers. The selected conventional category of farmers of Chhotaki Pona enjoyed the lowest benefit cost ratio (1.21) in growing cowpea in their own land but here once again the modern farmers were gaining more benefit cost ratio (2.48) for growing the same crop. While for the village, Chhotaki Lari the highest benefit cost ratio (2.99) for the carrot was recorded for modern farmers but it was only (2.04) for conventional farmers. The lowest benefit cost ratio (1.55) was recorded in onion among the crops grown by the selected modern farmers of Chhotaki Lari as against only (1.13) for the conventional farmers of this village in same crop. Only two crops viz. potato and onion were cultivated commonly by the selected all categories of farmers of Chhotaki Pona and Chhotaki Lari villages. The maximum net profit of Rs. 44480.00 per acre was recorded in onion grown by the modern category of the selected farmers of Chhotaki Pona village whereas Rs. 34740.00 was obtained by their respective selected counterparts of Chhotaki Lari village in same crop. Similarly, in the case of onion, maximum net profit of Rs. 42768.00 per acre was recorded in the selected modern category of farmers of Chhotaki Pona village but only Rs. 16308.33 was recorded in modern category of farmers of Chhotaki Lari village. Almost all cases, the conventional selected counterparts were extracted comparatively lower profit by growing these two crops in the selected two villages of Chitarpur block.

The benefit cost ratio for the cucurbits was the highest (3.84) for modern farmers of Chakarwali whereas it was only (1.28) for the selected conventional farmers. The lowest benefit cost ratio (2.44) was recorded in cowpea among the crops grown by the selected modern farmers of Chakarwali as against only (1.13) for the conventional farmers in identical crop. Similarly, the benefit cost ratio for the cucurbits was the highest (3.96) for modern farmers of Chokad whereas it was only (2.12) for conventional farmers. The lowest benefit cost ratio (2.53) was recorded in cowpea among the crops grown by the selected modern farmers of Chokad as against only (1.35) for the conventional farmers. In the comparative study between these two villages, it was revealed that five crops namely potato, tomato, cowpea, cucurbits and onion were cultivated by the both categories of the selected farmers. Here, the maximum net profit of Rs. 51450.00 per acre was recorded in onion by the selected modern counterparts of Chakarwali village whereas only Rs. 37821.43 was recorded in same crop grown by their respective equivalent selected farmers of Chokad village. The minimum net profit of Rs. 16064.67 per acre was recorded in cowpea grown by the selected modern farmers of Chokad whereas Rs. 14094.00 was extracted by the same category of selected farmers of Chakarwali village. All the cases of five crops, the conventional farmers were obtained comparatively lower net profit over their opposite selected counterparts of these two selected villages of Gola block.

Only six crops namely potato, tomato, cowpea, cucurbits, onion and okra were commonly cultivated by the at least six each from the selected modern and conventional categories of farmers of Gola, Chitarpur and Ramgarh blocks of Ramgarh district. The selected modern farmers of Ramgarh block enjoyed more profit by growing tomato, cowpea and cucurbits over their respective counterparts of Gola and Chitarpur blocks while the selected modern farmers of Chitarpur block gained more profit by growing potato and okra over their respective counterparts of Ramgarh and Gola blocks. Although in the case of onion, the selected modern farmers of Gola block enjoyed the more profit than their respective counterparts of Ramgarh and Chitarpur blocks. On the contrary, the selected conventional farmers of Gola gained comparatively more profit over their respective counterparts of Ramgarh and Chitarpur blocks by growing almost all of the above crops except potato and cucurbits. In the case of cucurbits, the selected conventional farmers of Ramgarh block enjoyed more profit over their respective counterparts of Gola and Chitarpur blocks whereas in the case of potato, the selected conventional farmers of Chitarpur blocks gained the more profit over the selected conventional farmers of Ramgarh and Gola blocks.

The profitability of growing different horticultural crops in different selected villages of Ramgarh, Gola and Chitarpur blocks of Ramgarh district were not constant even within the similar category of farmers. The findings also tinted on the probable reasons for gaining lower profit for growing different horticultural crops by the conventional farmers of all the selected villages of Ramgarh district despite their opportunity to harness more profit from the available resources.

Keywords: B:C ratio, Technological intervention, organic horticulture, economic contribution, Ramgarh district