Cost and Net Return of Tobacco Growers – A Case Study of District Mardan (KP- Pakistan)

The study focused the profitability of tobacco growers in one of the district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (Mardan). Tehsil Takht bhai was selected through purposive sampling among the three Tehsil of district Mardan. A sample of 120 growers was selected and interviewed randomly through a prepared well- structure questioner. Different practices were grouped into five parts. Land rent of the respondent area was 61,750 rupees per hectare; nursery raising cost was estimated at 11,828 rupees per hectare. The bed preparation cost for tobacco is 12,300 rupees per hectare while planting cost was 61,476.68 and processing cost was 95,535 rupees per hectare. The highest cost incurred was 61,750 rupees for land followed by Fuel wood which was 39,957 rupees per hectare. Total product of tobacco was calculated as 44 mounds per hectare. The total revenue was Rs. 405,636 per hectare while total cost incurred was 242,889.68 having a profit of Rs. 162,746.32 per hectare. The data were checked through VIF found free of multicollenearity problem. The analysis of profit function is prior to our expectation and economic theories. Factor affecting analysis shows that overall results of the regression are statistically significant except farm size and fertilizers used during production. The coefficients of seed are the highest among all variables which can highly affect the productivity of the growers.