Profitability from green pea vis-a-vis competing crops-An alternative for increasing farmer's income in Punjab

This study was undertaken to examine the cost-return structure of green pea and major competing crops in Punjab. The requisite primary data were collected to accomplish the objectives of the study. District Amritsar was purposively selected for the study which was having highest area under pea cultivation in the state. A sample of 100 farmers growing pea crop were selected randomly for the study. Selected farmers were divided into three categories on the basis of operational holding size. The data were analyzed by using simple tabular analysis and other statistical tools. The study revealed that green pea growing was found to be more profitable than its major competing crop i.e. potato. The results further revealed that the cultivation of main season pea crop was more profitable than the late season crop. Also, pea-potato and potato-pea crop rotations were found to be more profitable than wheat crop during Rabi season. Labour use pattern inferred that pea picking was the major farm operation utilizing about 93 per cent of the total labour force employed. Gross returns from pea growing were higher on large farms due to comparatively higher average yield realized on these farms while returns over variable cost were also higher on large farms despite higher total variable cost as compared to other farm categories. Input-output ratio was highest (2.16) on large farms while lower on small (2.13) and medium (2.03) farm categories. Thus, pea-potato/potato-pea crop rotation can be one of the alternatives to enhance farmer's income. Besides, the study brought out that the pea growing farmer's especially small ones should be educated through various training programmes to decrease their cost of production by making judicious use of scarce farm resources. Also, good quality pea seed should be made available to the farmers at reasonable prices to stop their exploitation at the hands of private seed producers.