Marketing and Economics 165
of Rs. 5,03,500/ha (price of Rs. 5.00/kg). West Bengal farmer (Ranjan Das) obtained a
yield of 150 t/ha with a net profit of Rs. 4,20,000/ha. He mainly harvested premature
fruits and sold his crop as vegetable at a price of Rs. 3.5/kg. The economics of papaya
cultivation has reported a profit of 0.42 million rupees (ha−^1 ) (Biswas 2010). The papaya-
based cropping systems (sequential and intercropping) are found most remunerative as
they give high net returns (Rs. 1,67,000/ha) in the case of papaya + tobacco intercrop-
ping in North Bihar in 1 year 8 months as reported in Table 15.2 (Singh et al. 2010).
TABLE 15.1
Cost per Acre of Establishing and Producing Papaya on a South Florida
Five-Acre OrchardUnitYear 1
(Establishment)Year 2 (Full
Production)Year 1 and
2 Total
Estimated yield Lb/acre 6500.00 22,500.00 29,000.00
Estimated price $/lb 0.40 0.40 0.40
Total receipts dollars 2600.00 9000.00 11,600.00
COSTS
Pre-harvest costs $/acre
Soil preparation (disc and bed) 100.00 100.00
Trees 338.00 338.00
Planting and other costs 225.00 225.00
Irrigation 250.00 250.00 500.00
Fertilisers 663.00 866.00 1529.00
Herbicides 100.00 200.00 300.00
Insecticides 356.00 469.00 825.00
Fungicides 404.00 584.00 988.00
Mowing 120.00 120.00 240.00
Labour (weeding, fertilising, etc.) 684.00 812.00 1496.00
Repairs 40.00 41.00 81.00
Interest on pre-harvest costs 98.00 100.00 198.00
Harvesting and marketing costs
Picking, packing and hauling 650.00 2250.00 2900.00
Total variable/establishment costs $/acre 4028.00 5692.00 9720.00
Gross margin 1428.00 3308.00 1880.00
Annual fixed costs $/acre
Land (rental price) 500.00 500.00 1000.00
Property tax 50.00 52.00 102.00
Other overhead charges 250.00 250.00 500.00
Total fixed costs $/acre 800.00 802.00 1602.00
Total costs $/acre 4828.00 6494.00 11,322.00
Net returns $/acre 2228.00 2506.00 278.00Source: Adapted from Evans, E. A., F. H. Ballen and J. H. Crane, 2012, Cost estimates of establish-
ing and producing papaya (Carica papaya) in South Florida, Food and Resource Economics
Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural
Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, FE 918:1–5, http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/.