Economic Evaluation of Herbicides used for Weed Control in Groundnut Farming in Sikhar Block of Mirzapur District in India

Weeds from a large portion of crops are not being removed due to the shortage of labour and increasing wage rate that has been the cause of highest crops lost in India. Countries across the world have solved this problem during the period of the scarcity of labour and higher weeding cost by adopting the chemical method of weed control. Therefore, a field survey was conducted during Kharif Season, November 2017 in Sikhar block of Mirzapur District in Uttar Pradesh. The Major objective of the study was to evaluate the effect of weed control methods on its cost, growth yield and economic return in two varieties of groundnut. Partial budgeting and Likert scale have been usedto analyze the major problem and economic constraint of farmers. This partial budgeting analysis commonly is used in estimating the profitability of relatively minor change in an existing system. More specifically, it evaluated the relative economic importance of the difference between chemical and manual methods of weed control. Majority of groundnut farmers were reported that theherbicides can be used for weed control and now without herbicides it is difficult since there is shortage of labour and increasing wage rate. In economic analysis, we found that in case of two times manual method of weed control at 25+50 days after sown (DAS) the maximum cost was Rs.8402.58 per acre while the maximum cost in the case of two times chemical method of weed control at around 25+50 days after sown (DAS) was only Rs.1504.36 per acre. Total output recorded from manual weeding groundnut was 28798.46 kg/acre followed by 29015.19 kg/acre from chemical weeding. Shathi verity (s2) of groundnut found to be more productive as compared to Koushal verity (s1).