Marketing and Economics 167
It had been found that the cultivation of papaya involves high investment, but it
is an economically profitable and financially viable fruit crop. Sagar et al. (2012)
reported that the average total cost of cultivation of papaya was Rs. 1,76,660 and on
an average cost-A (paid out cost) formed 62% of total cost, while cost B accounted
for 87% of the total cost. The average farm harvest price received by the papaya
growers was Rs. 607 per quintal. On an average, gross income and net returns per
hectare were Rs. 4,92,025 and Rs. 3,15,365, respectively. The average per hectare
farm business income, family labour income and farm investment income were to
the tune of Rs. 3,83,126, Rs. 3,37,653 and Rs. 3,60,838, respectively, on the sample
farms. The overall input to output ratio was found as 1:2.79 on the basis of cost
incurred (C-2). The average cost of production of papaya was about Rs. 218.00/q
which lowers the market price of papaya ranging from Rs. 500 to 700/q. Bulk line
cost was Rs. 276/q for papaya at 85% production which covered 69% of farms and
81% of area. On an average, high cost of planting material, lack of knowledge about
fertiliser application, the absence of regulated markets, non-availability of high-
yielding variety seeds of papaya, lack of knowledge about identifying pests, non-
availability of fertiliser in time, long distance of market, non-availability of labour
in time were the major production and marketing constraints faced by the papaya
growers of middle Gujarat. This criterion indicates the return per rupee invested in
papaya enterprise and a wise investor always expects a higher ratio. The benefit to
cost ratio in this study was found to be 2.79, which indicates that each rupee invested
in papaya enterprise yields Rs. 2.79 as return. Thus, it could be concluded that invest-
ment in papaya orchard was economically feasible and financially viable (Devi and
Sa ra n 2014).