Economics of Banana Cultivation: A Comparative Study on Adopters and Non-Adopters of Weather Based Crop Insurance Scheme

Abstract

An economic analysis of banana cultivation was done to compare the adopters and non-adopters of WBCIS. Firstly, a comparison of farm business analysis was done using cost concepts. At Cost C, insured farmers had incurred more cost (₹ 3,86,021 ha-1) than uninsured farmers (₹3,50,910.06 ha-1). The net returns at Cost C for insured farmers were ₹3,56,261 ha-1 and for uninsured farmers, it was 3,24,197 ha-1. Insured farmers had incurred more cost C and more net return at Cost C than uninsured farmers. The BC ratio obtained for insured farmers (2.01) at Cost C were more than that of uninsured farmers (1.92). It was found that the insured farmers were having more economic benefits than uninsured farmers from banana cultivation. The results of Cobb-Douglas production function revealed that R2 value for insured and uninsured farmers was 0.87 and 0.79 respectively, which indicated a good fit. The analysis of allocative efficiency, for insured and uninsured farmers, revealed that quantity of hired labour, family labour and quantity of manures, fertilizers and soil ameliorants were underutilized. Furthermore, quantity of plant protection materials was overutilized by both categories of farmers.