Enhancing Income and Employment through Vegetable Crops in District Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh

The investigation was carried out during 2007-08 in block Bakshi Ka Talab of district Lucknow with thirty random sample of the vegetable growers. The economics and employment of three major vegetable viz., okra, cauliflower and tomato were worked out at different size group of farms. The average cost of cultivation for okra came to Rs.14870.68/ha which fetched a net income of Rs.10369.32 per hectare. The cauliflower crop reflect a net return of Rs.18192.01/ha on investment of Rs.17432.99 as input cost while tomato crop produced a net benefit of Rs.18106/ha by incurring a input cost of Rs.21774/ha. A comparative study revealed that tomato crop reflect highest gross return of Rs.39880/a while on the front of net return cauliflower proved best and tomato was at par. The cost of production per quintal of okra, cauliflower and tomato came to Rs.234.04, Rs.183.51 and Rs.218.31, respectively. The input-output analysis revealed that cauliflower crop proved to economical and remunerative fetched more than two times return over cost (1:2.04 B:CR) while tomato ranked second with 1.83 times benefit over investment. On employment front tomato generated highest employment days (60) followed by okra 45 man days and cauliflower 35 man days in the study area.