An Economic Analysis of Onion Cultivation in Giridih District of Jharkhand

The study was carried out in Giridih district of Jharkhand with the objectives to work out the cost and return structure of onion cultivation and to identify the major constraints confronted by the farmers in onion cultivation. For the selection of respondent's multistage sampling design was employed. Primary data was collected from sample of 120 onion growing farmers. The data so collected pertained to the Rabi season of the agricultural year 2016–17. The study concluded that, the average cost of cultivation of onion in Dhanwar block was 57687.95 per acreage which was higher than 50374.3 in case of Birni. The total variable cost per acre in Dhanwar was 45325.16 and in Birni it was 41691.40. The output per acre in Dhanwar was 65.52 quintal and in Birni it was 46.00 quintal/acre. The return per rupee investment was around 1.71 and 1.34 over variable and total cost respectively in case of Dhanwar block. In Birni block it was 1.65 over variable cost and 1.37over fixed cost. The major problems in cultivation of onion were lack of water for irrigation, high cost of seeds, pest and diseases, awareness on optimum use of fertilizers, high cost of labour etc.