Estimation of Costs and Returns of Groundnut in Vizianagaram Districts of Andhra Pradesh, India

Groundnut crop is one of the important oil seed crop grown in Vizianagaram district. Though the Groundnut is cultivated on small area but it contributes sizable share in total earnings of the cultivator. However, yield and profit from Groundnut cultivation is uncertain because it is very sensitive and it badly affects from extreme climatic conditions so it requires special attention.

The marketing of Groundnut from producer to consumer also involves various activities like transportation, loading, and storage, etc. During this process of marketing the quality as well as quantity of Groundnut get damaged and lost. The Groundnut growers face number of problems at each stage of production, marketing, and distribution like lack of technical knowledge, lack of market intelligence, inadequate transportation, and major market yard facilities.

The socio-economic characteristics of farmers i.e., size of family, educational status, land utilization pattern, cropping pattern and fixed capital investment were studied. The standard cost concepts i.e., cost 'A', and cost 'B', cost 'C' was used in present study.

Majority of groundnut respondents (36%) had farming experience of 2 – 9 years, about 37% had 10 to 20-year experience, 16% had 21-to-30-year experience, while 09% of the respondents had between 31 to 35-year experience of groundnut production. The mean years of farming experience was 17 years. This is an indication that more farmers are embracing production of the crop due to its profit advantage.

The total owned area is observed between 0.1-0.9 hectares of land, about 40% had 1 – 2 hectares, 22% had between 2 – 4 hectares and 07% had 4 – 10 hectares and none hold above 10 hectares. The average farm size is 1.5 hectares.

The cost A of groundnut cultivation was observed to be Rs.118560, Rs.115543, Rs.111606 and Rs.110040 per hectare of marginal, small, semi-medium, and medium land holding farmers.

Cost B it is the summation of Cost A, Rental Value of owned land and interest on value 67.89 of owned fixed capital.

It is observed as Rs.100281, Rs.97489, Rs.93760 and Rs.92036per hectare of groundnut production in marginal, small, semi-medium and medium land holding farmers and the average value of cost B is Rs.95892 per hectare.

To find Cost C1 is the summation of Cost B and imputed value of family labor, family labor cost is given to be an Rs.7500, Rs.7550, Rs.7700 and Rs.8000 and got a solution of Rs.107781, Rs. 105039, Rs.101460 and Rs.100036 per hectare.

Cost C2 it includes Cost B + 10 per cent of cost B. as managerial charges as calculated as a result Rs.118560, Rs.115543, Rs.115543 and Rs.110040 and the total input cost is also considered a cost C.