Cost and return structure of tomato growers under open field, low tunnel and poly house conditions

The present investigation was carried out in the purposively selected Jandiala Guru block of Amritsar district during 2013. The sample of 50 tomato growers were selected consisting of 30 open field, 10 poly house, 10 low tunnels tomato growers. The production and marketing practices followed by tomato growers under different methods of cultivation led to relatively intensive use of inputs and labour in case of poly house tomato cultivation. Consequently, production and marketing costs turned out to be higher under poly house. But due to about five times high productivity and better prices, the net returns under poly house cultivation was about seven times higher than that of open field tomato cultivation. There is further scope to enhance the productivity under poly house technology through better technical and managerial skills. At the same time, poly house technology is highly capital intensive and risky due to many constraints related to production and marketing. The promotion of poly house technology should be as per the demand-supply-price relationships of tomato, through contract cultivation integrated with processing and backed by proper insurance policy.