Two decades of economics of Banana production in Jalgaon district, Maharashtra

The quinquennial changes in the economics of banana production in the Jalgaon district over a period of 20 years (1980 to 2000) have been investigated based on the data collected by survey method from 90 bananagrowers in the Yawal and Raver tehsils of Jalgaon district for the years 1980, 1985, 1991, 1995 and 2000. The results based on the tabular method of analysis have indicated that the Jalgaon district alone has shared 69 per cent of the area and 61 per cent of the banana production in the state. The per hectare resource-use structure of the important resources has revealed 57.64 per cent increase in the hired male human labour-use and 69.47 per cent decrease in the hired female human labour-use, constituting 65.12 per cent decrease in the total hired human labour-use. The use of bullock labour has decreased by 59.81 per cent and of planting material increased by 1.07 per cent during the period 1980–2000. The reduction in the use of fertilizer has been found as 37.31, 30.24 and 31.52 per cent in the case N, P and K₂O, respectively during 1980 and 1995. An increase in K₂O fertilizer-use by 16.32 per cent has been observed in 2000. The fertilizer, interest on working capital, irrigation, manure, hired human labour and planting material have been the major items of cost. There has been a significant increase in the cost of all the items as well as at the level of costs A, B and C. The per hectare yield of banana witnessed a decrease of 17.74 per cent during 1980 and 1995; it increased by 22.90 per cent during 1980 and 2000. A continuous increase has been observed in the gross returns, net returns and per quintal cost of production of banana. The input-output ratio has ranged from 1.30 to 1.78. The banana-growers in the Jalgaon district have standardized the cultivation of Basrai banana even under the adverse climatic conditions and have adopted high-tech agricultural practices.