Economic Appraisal of Mandarin Cultivation in Jhalawar District of Rajasthan

Abstract

The study examined various aspects of mandarin such as growth in area, production and productivity and various tools to measure the economic viability of mandarin in Jhalawar district of Rajasthan area during 2008-09. A sample of sixty farmers was drawn from six selected villages. In Jhalawar district the compound growth rate of area, production and productivity of mandarin showed a significant and positive growth rate of 9.06, 19.96 and 9.98% per annum, respectively, during 1998-99 to 2007-08. The economic feasibility of mandarin orchard was tested by four different methods viz., payback period, net present worth, internal rate of return and gross benefit cost ratio. The establishment cost was estimated as Rs. 26,535. On the basis of this establishment cost, the pay back period of the investment was worked out to 7 years. The net present worth was estimated to Rs. 5,73,951.26 in the study area. The total discounted cost and benefit were observed as Rs. 5,75,969.42 and Rs. 11,49,920.67, respectively. The IRR was calculated as 34.90%. This indicated high profitability of mandarin cultivation. The gross benefit cost ratio was calculated as 2.00, which was more than unity. Finally, by all the techniques of investment decision such as NPW (Rs. 5,73,951.26), IRR (34.90 %), GBCR (2.00:1) and PBP (7 years), it was found that the mandarin cultivation in Jhalawar district was profitable and economically viable. Key words: Mandarin, Jhalawar, orchards, economic analysis.