Article abstract

Journal of Agricultural and Crop Research

Research Article | Published August 2020 | Volume 8, Issue 8 pp. 147-158.

doi: https://doi.org/10.33495/jacr_v8i8.20.167

 

Economic sustainability of current cropping systems in the Indian Punjab: A case study

 



 

 

Sukhwinder Singh

 

Email Author

 

Centre for Chronic Disease Control, Public Health Foundation of India.


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Citation: Singh S (2020). Economic sustainability of current cropping systems in the Indian Punjab: A case study. 8(8):147-158. doi: 10.33495/jacr_v8i8.20.167.

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 Abstract 


Indian Punjab is a strategically important region in terms of India’s current and future food security needs. However, stagnating productivity levels of major crops are denting the net farm profitability of farming enterprise in Punjab. This paper investigates the economic sustainability of current cropping systems in the Indian Punjab in terms of Relative Crop Yield Index (RCYI), Cost of Cultivation (CoC), Net Farm Profitability (NFP) and Annual Income from Farm Enterprise (AIFE) and their association with socioeconomic and agricultural factors. Both, the RCYI and CoC varied significantly across agro-climatic zones while the NFP and AIFE were statistically comparable across zones. Wheat-Basmati-Cotton-Sugarcane crop combination yielded the highest net farm profitability. The regression results suggest that an optimal use of fertiliser helped farmers yield a higher RCYI whereas higher crop diversity enabled farmers to cut the cost of cultivation. Farmers connected with agricultural extension networks could raise their net farm profitability significantly while an optimal use of pesticides maximised their annual income from farm enterprise. A typical farmer spent Rs 84,374 ($1,687) and earned Rs 12,055 ($241) from each hectare annually. An average farm of 4.8 ha could generate an annual income of Rs 55,887 ($1117) suggesting that a member of an average farmer household of five is surviving on Rs 46/day ($0.93). Therefore, an average farmer household of Punjab is living below “poverty line.” Overall, most farm enterprises in the Indian Punjab are economically unsustainable due to higher cost of cultivation particularly using more fertilisers and pesticides and making heavy investment on farm machinery, and limited access to agricultural extension advisory.

Keywords  Agriculture   farm income   crop diversity   crop productivity   wheat-rice system  

 

 

Copyright © 2020 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.

This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

 

 

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