Department of Agricultural Economics, TNAU, Coimbatore
Online published on 5 December, 2018.
In the recent decade, there has been a serious concern over the issue of environmental degradation and hence an urgent need for its sustainability has raised. Organic farming is an approach for sustainable agricultural production without deteriorating soil quality, farm diversity and avoiding hazards to the environment on a long-term basis. This study was carried out in Tamil Nadu with the specific objectives to estimate the cost and returns, resource use efficiency of organic farming in comparison to inorganic farming of banana. Primary data were collected and analysis was carried out. The result revealed that the yield of banana under organic farming was found to be lower than inorganic farming. However, the organic farmers realized higher net returns compared to inorganic farmers. It was also found that cultivation of banana under organic to be economically viable. The analysis on resource use efficiency revealed that there exists a possibility for enhancing the yield of banana by increasing the inputs viz. human labour, farmyard manure and organic inputs from the existing level. Preparation of organic inputs should also be standardized and recommended dosage of various organic inputs for improving the yield have to be made available by the extension agencies to the farmers.
