Analysis of the Impact of Low Tunnel Technology on Farm Income of Bottle Gourd Growers in the Bikaner District of Rajasthan, India

Abstract

A field survey was conducted on farmers of Bikaner district to analyze of impact of low tunnel technology on farm income of bottle gourd growers with low tunnel technology and open field in Bikaner district. A total of 60 farmers was selected randomly i.e. 30 farmers with low tunnel technology and 30 farmers without low tunnel technology. The primary data was collected from the selected cultivators using the personal interview method. A partial budgeting technique was used for the impact of low tunnel technology. Partial Budgeting was used to calculate the economic impact of a single technology adoption. The result showed that the total operational cost in low tunnel technology is ₹ 123783.23 per ha and in open field total operational cost is ₹ 80883.23 per ha. In low tunnel technology 27.66 percent cost incurred in human labour followed by seed cost with 10.94 percent, while in open field it was 25.56 percent and 13.85 percent respectively. The gross return in low tunnel technology was ₹ 350000.00 per ha, in the open field ₹ 160000.00 per ha, the net return in low tunnel technology was ₹ 226216.77 per ha and ₹ 79116.77 per ha in the open field. The benefit-cost ratio of low tunnel bottle gourd production was 2.82 and in the open field, it was 1.97. In low tunnel technology, the added cost is ₹ 26822.26 per ha and the added return is ₹ 190000.00 per ha. In low tunnel technology bottle gourd production average yield is 250 Qt per ha and in open field average yield is 200 Qt per ha.