PROFITABILITY ANALYSIS OF SUSTAINABLE COTTON PRODUCTION: A CASE STUDY OF COTTON WHEAT FARMING SYSTEM IN BAHAWALPUR DISTRICT OF PUNJAB

A. Imran, S. Hassan, M. Ashfaq, A. H. Makhdum, M. A. Kamran, S. A. A. Naqvi, S. A. Awan

Abstract: Basic drive of study was to look at existing level and the factors affecting the rate of adoption of Sustainable Agricultural Practices/Better Management Practices (SAPs/BMPs) in cotton crop. The study was based on farmers data obtained from World Wide Fund (WWF) for Nature. Survey data of 1000 farmers for year 2013 was used from Bahawalpur district with 50% respondents purposively selected from sustainable cotton farmers working with and licensed from WWF-P and other 50% respondents were the farmers using conventional practices and not involved with WWF-P’s project. Data were evaluated using partial budgeting and Cobb-Douglas Production Function methods. The data shows that the level of adoption of SAPs was higher among licensed farmers who have strong contract and better understanding and awareness about sustainable cotton program as compared to those of non-licensed. The results further reveals that, education level and land holding size of respondents have positive impact on adoption of SAPs, while the age and farming experience of farmers were found to have a negative effect on SAPs rate of adoption. The results from regression analysis shows that years of schooling of the farmers, quantity of fertilizer used, amount of water used and use of practices like water scouting, natural pesticide, farmyard manure and Bt variety can increase the cotton yield whereas years of farmer’s age and amount of pesticide may decrease it. It is evident from the results that extension services have a significant role to disseminate information about sustainable use of resources and introduction of market based and command and control policy instruments to promote BMPs and resource conservation.

Keywords: BMPs; partial budgeting; profitability analysis; Punjab; resource conservation; SAPs

Date published: 2017-09-11