Profitability of Kinnow Mandarin Cultivation-A Case Study of Himachal Pradesh

The attractiveness of any business ultimately depends upon its profitability. The profitability of farm business can be derived from the relationship between the cost incurred in running the business and the returns accrued from it. It is the input-output relationship that generally decides the economic prosperity and the degree of commercialization on these farms. For this purpose, the present study was designed to measure socio economic status of kinnow orchardists, input use, cost structure, return and resource use efficiency in kinnow production of Himachal Pradesh, India. In present investigation the sample of 308 kinnow orchardists were selected from study area which input-output data collected with a view to examine the input use, cost structure and returns in production and the resource use efficiency of kinnow orchardists in year 2013–14. The results of study revealed that the average net profit per hectare was 4372.16 to 11319.86 and it increased with the increase in size of farms. The overall input-output ratio was 3.44 on the basis of total cost of cultivation for large orchardists followed by medium farms (2.96) and small farms (2.63).