Agricultural Economics Research Review

This study has examined various costs (including on labour) and margins involved and the returns being obtained by the nursery growers of district Kullu. It has been observed that the major proportion (97.6%) of the total human labour required was comprised of family labour which accounted for 15.4 per cent of the total cost. The average annual variable cost per farm (600 m²), for growing nursery of all the crops throughout the year has been 1,57,637 and gross returns as 4,69,540, giving a B/C ratio of 2.98. To obtain the gross returns to this tune one needs to cultivate 2.76 hectares of cauliflower or 2.90 hectares of cabbage or 3.39 hectares of pea which in turn will require about 524 persondays, 557 persondays or 634 persondays of labour, respectively in comparison to 405 persondays required for nursery raising. Thus the avocation can be advocated for adoption by the farmers in the vegetable dominated belts of the state. The farmers should be trained by the agricultural extension agencies for better production techniques and efficient market strategies to help them to extend their marketing outside the state to mitigate the problem of excessive supply.