Cost and return analysis of apple crop of horticultural entrepreneurs in Jammu division of UT, Jammu and Kashmir

Abstract

Hortipreneurs is interpreted from the word “agripreneur” which means an entrepreneur whose primary business is horticulture. Hortipreneurship therefore is the community oriented, environmentally sustainable and market led development of horticultural business. A study was conducted in five districts of Jammu division. Multistage random sampling technique was employed for the study. At first out of 10 districts of Jammu division, 5 districts namely Ramban, Doda, Kishtwar, Rajouri and Poonch were selected purposively because it has maximum area and production of selected horticulture based enterprise. In the second stage two blocks from each selected district were selected for study. From each sub division 25 no. of horticulture entrepreneur were selected by random sample technique. Thus a total sample of 250 horticultural entrepreneurs was selected for the purpose of the study. The primary data on horticultural entrepreneurs were collected by surveying through interview method with the help of pre tested questionnaire and there after analysed the constraints encountered by them at various levels. Horticultural Orchard was a profitable venture in all the 3 districts for horticultural entrepreneurs with a B:C ratio 1:0.60 in Ramban, 1:0.96 in Doda and1:1.04 in Kishtwar. The per hectare cost of cultivation was worked out to Rs.185093 for Ramban, Rs.157335 in Doda and Rs.162055 for Kishtwar with major contributors were Labour Charges and Plant Protection Chemicals. The gross return, return over variable cost and net return per hectare were Rs.294905 and Rs.142081on an overall basis.