Profitability assessment of tea based inter cropping in Golaghat district of Assam

A study was conducted to find out the profitability obtained in different intercropping systems in tea gardens of small tea growers in Golaghat district of Assam.The production and income from tea, was significantly influenced by the intercrops in different cropping systems. Mostly, the small tea growers planted areca nut and agarwood as intercrops in tea in Golaghat district. Higher yield was recorded in sole tea crop than inter cropping with Agarwood and areca nut. However, sole tea crop was recorded lower gross return compared to different intercropping systems.The average return over variable cost from mix cropping of tea with areca nut (1,98,896.81 Rs./ha), with Agarwood (2,49,152.72) and with areca nut and Agarwood (2,98,201.31) intercropping system combined was recorded much higher than that of conventional cultivation of sole tea (130389.24 Rs./ha). Thus, this study reveals that mix copping system of tea can add an extra income for the small tea growers and can also act as a backup against high risk of sole tea cultivation due to price fluctuation in green tea leaves. Moreover, tea+areca nut+ Agarwood intercropping system had the highest B:C ratio of 3.06 amongst all the studied intercropping systems but, tea + agarwood recorded the highest LER value of 1.61 which suggested that though the return was higher in tea + areca nut + agarwood intercropping system, the suitable land utilization was observed in tea + agarwood cropping system.