Costs and return per hectare of pearl millet crop in different size farm groups of Budaun district of western Uttar Pradesh

A multistage stratified purposive cum random sampling technique was applied for the selection of district, block, villages and respondents. The primary data were collected through survey on schedule with the help of personal interviews. A list of all the villages falling under selected Ambiyapur and Islamnagar block was prepared and ten villages were randomly selected. The farmers were stratified into three strata viz. Marginal (below 1 ha.), Small (1-2 ha.) and Medium (2-4 ha.). Ultimately, 100 respondents were selected for conducting the detailed study. The data pertained to the agricultural year 2022-23. Costs of cultivation per hectare increased with farm size, but income measures had an inverse relationship with size of holding, human labour was found statistically significant on most of the farm size. The production costs per quintal of pearl millet on marginal, small, and medium farms were determined 1871.96, 1844.95, and 1804.92, respectively. In comparison to cost C3, medium farms had the highest input-output ratio (1:1.19), followed by marginal farms (1:1.16) and small farms (1:1.17). Pearl millet production is lucrative in the study area and also generating income and employment. Pearl millet production is helpful in enhance the farmer’s income.