The Economics, Statistics and Evaluation Division (ES&ED), an attached office of the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, collects, disseminates and publishes statistics on diverse facets of agriculture and related sectors required for policy formulation by the Government. Among the various functions of the ES&ED, the Minimum Support Prices (MSPs) has great relevance in price fixation based on the recommendations made by the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). The most important factor considered by the CACP in making its recommendations on MSPs for different crops is the cost of cultivation / production for which the database is provided by the ES&ED through its “Comprehensive Scheme for Studying the Cost of Cultivation of Principal Crops in India”. Minimum Support Prices of various agricultural commodities form the basis of Agriculture Price Policy in India. Cost Study Scheme is implemented to evaluate the expenditure incurred by the cultivators on various inputs for the crops under study. These estimates and related statistics are also used for a wide variety of other important purposes like compilation of National Accounts Statistics, computation of Wholesale Price Indices, research studies on cost of cultivation and farm income etc.

“Comprehensive Scheme for Studying the Cost of Cultivation of Principal Crops in India” (Cost Study Scheme) was started in AY 1970-71 in the 16 states and presently running in the 19 states of the country through various implementing agencies and in the Uttar Pradesh Scheme was started in the same year 1970-71 at the G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology ,Pant Nagar, Uttarakhand and transferred from the University, Pant Nagar, to R.B.S. College, Bichpuri, Agra in May 1973 and Scheme again transferred from the College to the Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University on Ist July 2022. Presently Scheme is running and functioning smoothly under the Directorate of Extension Education in the Rani Lakshmi Bai Central Agricultural University, Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh.

Methodology: Since the inception of the scheme, the methodology in respect of selection of sample, tabulation and compilation has been changed from time to time to make the estimates more representative of the situation. The methodology is used in the scheme as single crop approach from 1970-71 to 1980-81 and crop – complex approach is using continuously from 1981-82. The sampling design of the scheme is a three-stage stratified random sampling design with tehsils as the first stage unit, village/cluster as the second-stage unit and operational holding as the third and ultimate stage unit.

Presently Scheme is functioning in the block-period 2023-26 and studying cost of cultivation of 15 principal crops (as crop-complex) from 900 selected farmers of 150 villages from 75 tehsils covering 45 districts in Uttar Pradesh as per prescribed methodology and sampling design.