Cost and Return Analysis of Gladiolus Cultivation in Kashmir Valley - A Study of Village Harwan

The present study was conducted to work out cost and returns of gladiolus cultivation in village Harwan of District Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir). In total 15 growers were traced out in the village growing gladiolus on commercial scale, and all of them were selected for present study. Most of the farmers were under the age group of 40–60 years, had attained the secondary education, and had been growing gladiolus for last one to five years. The dominant input is gladiolus corm that constitutes more than 40 percent of the total cost. Even though gross and net return per acre(net profit) increase with the increase in size of holding from small to large size class both at FGP and at market price, but surprisingly the returns per rupee of investment (profitability) at FGP were observed to be higher than the at market price. As such the paper highlights the problems associated with the marketing of the produce, which is one of the major factors imposing checks to the otherwise highly remunerative activity.