Economics of grape productin under organic and inorganic farming in the Nasik district of Maharashtra state

The paper throws light on different aspects of grape production, viz. nature and extent of use of organic inputs, per hectare costs and returns and problems in practising organic farming for grape production on sample farms. The study, based on the data collected from 60 farms (30 each of organic and inorganic grapes), has identified the organic inputs being used by the majority of sample farmers. The per hectare total cost (cost ‘C’) has been found as Rs 14675/- for organic grapes (including cost of organics as Rs 8855/-) and Rs 209035/- for inorganic grapes. The per hectare net profit of Rs 52687/- in grape production has been found to be lost by organic farms. The results are based on the second year's data (2004–05) of application of organic farming. Due to initial stage of organic farming, a decline in yield of 93.24 q/ha has been observed on organic farms. However, the yield is likely to be sustained after passing off the transition period in organic farming. The B:C ratio has been observed to be 1.37 in the cast of organic farms, and 1.51 in inorganic farms. The major problems in organic farming of grape production have been identified as risk of low productivity during the initial period, complexity in the use of different inputs of organic farming, high cost of vermicompost, biopesticides and vermiculture. Organic farms have remained short of per hectare productivity by 58.41 per cent and net returns by 96.45 per cent (organic farms have received net returns of Rs 54627/- per hectaure) than those in the inorganic farms. The organic grape-growers will have to sustain relatively less yields and net returns as compared to inorganic farms, during the initial period of switch over.