Farm profitability and Labour Use Efficiency

Appropriate choice of cropping systems to local agro-ecology increases profitability and employment. The increased labour shortage and redced profitability are growing concerns to the farmers. Keeping this, the paper written with the following objectives: i) To assess the profitability among different cropping systems in the semi-arid tropics; ii) To assess the labour use pattern among different cropping systems and farm size; iii) To determine the resource use efficiency of the different cropping systems in the SAT India; and finally iv) To assess the influence of regional/local factors on incomes of farmers in the SAT India. The study used plot wise data collected from 16 villages from four states namely Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat for the crop year 2010 for an in-depth analysis of the profitability and labour use among different cropping systems in semi-arid tropics of India. And it also estimated the resource use efficiency especially labour across different farm size groups in the SAT India and finally to assess the influence of regional/local factors on profitability of farmers. The study shows that input intensive cropping systems like cotton, paddy, wheat, fruits and vegetables based cropping systems are more profitable across many of the SAT villages compared to coarse cereals, pulses and oilseeds based cropping systems. Moreover, the area under these cropping systems is increased in the dry lands due to the introduction of Bt cotton varieties, short duration varieties, price incentives and subsidies. Although pulses based cropping systems remain attractive due to higher prices and less labour requirement, needs to provide incentives to increase area given its environmental benefits in enriching the soil. Most of the villages are experiencing the shortage of labour as indicated by higher marginal productivity of labour and increasing trend of mechanisation. Farm size is having positive association with the hired labour use and farm mechanisation, but having negative association with family labour. Female employment has inverted “U” shape relation with farm size. This indicates that the farms with more than five hectares of land are detrimental to women employment as farm mechanization in large farms replaces women labou