Input Cost and Output Prices of Selected Crops of Gujarat — A Comparative Analysis

The paper has compared the input cost and output prices of five major crops of Gujarat, viz. paddy, bajra, cotton (LS), wheat and pigeon pea. The time series data on input cost and output prices were collected from the reports of “Scheme for Creating a Permanent Machinery for Studying the Cost of Cultivation/Production of Principal Crops Grown in Gujarat State” (2001 to 2010). The positive and significantly higher growth rate was found for output prices in comparison to total input cost for all the five crops selected for the study. The values of instability index for output prices have been found low. The high growth and low instability index indicate sustainability in production of these crops, which is the pre-requisite for the state. The trend in parity indices has shown that the improvement in terms of trade was in favour of farmers in the case of paddy, pigeon pea, bajra and cotton crops, which needs to be sustained, whereas in case of wheat, the parity indices were not much in favour of farmers during the past ten years. This clearly indicates that output prices were not in proportion to input prices in the case of wheat crop during the period for most of the years.