Annual Report 2009-2010 - Department of Agriculture & Co-operation

Crop Cutting Experiments, following a
multi-stage stratified sampling technique.
3.19 The National Statistical Commission had
recommended that the present methodology
being followed for the crop estimation survey of
fruits and vegetables be replaced by an
alternative cost effective methodology. The IASRI
was entrusted with a project for conducting a
study in two states, Maharashtra and Himachal
Pradesh. The study was undertaken in these
states, and data collection was done in 10 and
four districts, respectively, of Maharashtra and
Himachal Pradesh. IASRI has submitted the
project report, which is the first pilot study in
directing the development of an alternative
methodology. The study has given very
encouraging results and demonstrated the
feasibility of estimating the production of fruits
and vegetables with a much smaller sample size
of 43 to 80 villages per district, depending on
the percentage of standard errors of less than
15 to 20 at 95 per cent confidence intervals. It
has been recommended that the methodology
needs to be tested in a few more states before
it is implemented on a large scale. The NSC has
also recommended that the alternative
methodology be tried out on a pilot basis before
actually implementing it on a large scale.
3.20 The scheme is monitored through
Quarterly Progress Reports (QPRs) and Seasonal
Progress Reports (SPRs), submitted by
implementing States and UTs.
3.21 Studies on Inputs for Agricultural
Economic Policy and Development
During the Tenth Five Year Plan, the following
components, which provide basic data support
and other inputs for the formulation of effective
policies, were clubbed under the umbrella
scheme, Studies on Inputs for Agricultural
Economic Policy and Development, with effect
from 2005-06:
Comprehensive Scheme for Studying the
Cost of Cultivation of Principal Crops in
India,
Agro-Economic Research Centers,
Planning and Management of Agriculture,
Strengthening of Agricultural Statistics
and Policy Formulation, and
Drought Management (merged during
2007 08).
3.22 Component-wise details are:
Comprehensive Scheme for Studying the Cost
of Cultivation of Principal Crops in India: The
Comprehensive Scheme for Studying the Cost
of Cultivation of Principal Crops in India is being
implemented since 1971 as a 100 per cent
central sector plan scheme on the basis of
recommendations made by the Standing
Technical Committee on Indices of Input Costs
constituted in 1967 under the Chairmanship of
Dr. Ashok Mitra. The main objectives of the
scheme are i) Collection and compilation of field
data on Cost of Cultivation and Cost of
Production in respect of 28 principal crops and
ii) Generation of state-wise and crop-wise
estimates of Cost of Cultivation (CoC) and Cost
of Production (CoP).
3.23 The CoC estimates for principal crops are
used by the Commission for Agricultural Costs
and Prices (CACP) for recommending the
Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) for 25 crops.
The DES gets this study conducted through 16
agricultural and general universities and colleges,
and the Directorate of Tobacco Development.
Under the scheme, field data pertaining to the
CoC and CoP are collected, compiled, and
processed to generate Cost of Cultivation and
Production estimates, which are used as an input
for firming up recommendations for MSPs for
important crops by the CACP.
3.24 The scheme is implemented in 19 states,
namely, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar,
Directorate of Economics and Statistics
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