Microbial Inoculants on Yard Long Bean Production: An Economic Impact Analysis

Microbial inoculants are agricultural amendments, widely used by farmers in organic agricultural production. Astudy was conducted to measure the extent of use, economics and impact of microbial inoculants on yard long bean production in Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala state. More than 50 per cent of the farmers were found to be using microbial inoculants above the recommended rate. Conventional farmers incurred more cost than that of microbial inoculants using farmers in the production. Microbial inoculants using farmers earned fifteen per cent more profit than that of conventional farmers. Area had positive and significant impact on returns for both the type of farmers and expenditure on microbial inoculants showed a negative and significant impact on returns, which was due to over use of microbial inoculants.