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Evaluation of Economic Viability and Constraints in Growing Pulse Based Crop Rotations at Small Farms of Punjab

Rakesh Kumar*

Data was collected during 2014-15 and 2015-16 from 120 small farmers of 12 villages from randomly selected Amritsar and Gurdaspur districts of Punjab, India, to evaluate the performance of various pulse based crop rotations viz. rice-wheat-summer moong/mash (summer pulse based crop rotation(SPBCR1)), Rice-sugarcane-summer moong/mash (summer pulse based crop rotation(SPBCR2), Arhar-Wheat (main pulse based crop rotation(MPBCR3)), Rice-lentil(main pulse based crop rotation(MPBCR4)), Arhar-lentil(pulse-pulse based crop rotation(PPBCR5) compared to the existing non-pulse based crop rotation i.e rice-wheat cropping system as (non-pulse based crop rotation (NPBCR6)). Rice equivalent yield in SPBCR1 (129.42q/ha) and SPBCR2 (126.58q/ha) was found statistically at par but observed significantly higher compared to all other crop rotations. Rice equivalent yield in NPBCR6 (99.28q/ha) witnessed significantly higher than MSPBCR3 (87.43q/ha), MSPBCR4 (87.20q/ha) and PPBCR5 (68.52q/ha), gross returns (Rs. 185063.46/ha), net returns (Rs118116.83/ha), crop profitability (Rs. 334.58/ha/day) and system profitability (Rs. 323.61/ha/day) compared to all other cropping systems. Benefit cost ratio was significantly higher in MSPBCR3 (1.99) than all other crop rotations and SPBCR1 (1.76), MSPBCR4 (1.74) and PPBCR5 (1.66) witnessed significantly higher benefit cost ratio than NPBCR6 (1.55). Among various problems faced by small farmers for cultivation of pulse crops, low production and productivity, low market price of the produce, marketing problems, non availability of suitable varieties and high cost of cultivation was ranked-I (65.28%), ranked-II (57.98%), ranked-III (56.31%), ranked-IV (55.83%) and ranked-Vth (51.44%) respectively. The other problems such as unpredictable weather conditions, major price fluctuations, lack of harvesting mechanization, large number of pests and diseases and non- availability of labor etc were found important with less than 50 per cent of mean value.