Economic Evaluation of Large Cardamom Cultivation in Sikkim

The present study was conducted at North Sikkim and West Sikkim of Sikkim state using primary data collected from 90 growers. It was revealed that cultivation of large cardamom was found profitable.

The establishment cost and per hectare annual total cost found to be higher with the larger farm size. Per hectare net return was found to be highest in small farm size. For overall farm size, the Net Present Worth, Internal Rate of Return (IRR), B:C ratio and payback period has been found to be Rs. 903246, 50.72, 2.54 and 2.27 respectively indicating economic viability and certainty of investment in large cardamom cultivation. The estimated Cobb-Douglas production function revealed that the sum of regression co-efficient for marginal, small and overall category was found to be greater than one except for medium farm. The ratio of MVP to MFC showed less than unity for human labour (X₄) in marginal farm, irrigation (X₃) in small farm and for human labour (X₄) was found negative in medium farm category. Provision should be made for availability of good quality disease free planting materials with exclusive research to enhance the production and yield of large cardamom in the study area.