The present investigation was undertaken with a view to study the labour absorption (both family and hired labour) in principal crops in Semi-Arid and Flood Prone Eastern Plain Region of Rajasthan. The primary data were collected from 200 households of 10 villages during the year 2018-2019. To study the labour absorption in crop production for principal crops the model suggested by Singh, 1996 was used. In semi-arid and flood prone eastern region (Region-III), the average labour absorption in crop production was 48.72 man-days per hectare in selected principal crops i.e., pearl millet, green gram, wheat, rapeseed & mustard and chickpea. The participation of family and hired labour was 31.11 man-days per hectare and 17.61 man-days per hectare in region-III. The wage rate for machine labour was maximum on marginal farms (Rs. 849.86 per hour) while minimum on large farms (Rs. 596.71 per hour).

The study has assessed the performance of different crops and cropping pattern in the state of Rajasthan using alternative price scenarios like market prices; economic prices (net out effect of subsidy) and natural resource valuation (NRV) considering environmental benefits like biological nitrogen fixation and greenhouse gas costs. The study has used unit-level cost of cultivation data for the triennium ending 2013-14 which were collected from Cost of Cultivation Scheme, MPUAT, Udaipur (Raj.) for the present study. It has analyzed crop-wise use of fertilizers, groundwater, surface water and subsidies. The secondary data of cropping pattern was also used from 1991-95 to 2011-14 from various published sources of Government of Rajasthan. The study that even after netting out the input subsidies and effect on environment and natural resources, the cotton-vegetables cropping pattern was found more stable and efficient because of the higher net return of ` 102463 per hectare with the next best alternate cropping patterns like clusterbean-chillies (` 86934/ha), cotton-wheat (` 69712/ha), clusterbean-wheat (` 64987/ ha) etc. under the set of marketing infrastructure, minimum support prices, agricultural technological know-how, climatic conditions in the various zones, available irrigation facilities. The study has pointed out that the grower farmers may not move towards the diversification until incentivized by economically attractive alternate cropping patterns.

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The present investigation was undertaken to work out the economic performance and optimum cropping pattern based on alternative price scenarios in Arid-Western Plain Zone of Rajasthan state. In the present study, the unit-level cost of cultivation data of various crops for the triennium ending year 2013-14 which were collected from “Comprehensive Scheme to Study the Cost of Cultivation of Principal Crops in Rajasthan state. The performance of different crops was assessed by calculating net returns under three alternative price scenarios i.e. (i) Market prices (MP) (ii) Economic prices (EP) and (iii) Net income based on natural resource valuation technique (NRV). This study has considered subsidy as a cost to society. Similarly green house gas emissions from the crops have been taken as cost to the society and nitrogen fixation by leguminous crops have been taken as gain to the society. Results from the study shows that groundnut-barley combination of crop sequence was found the most remunerative in economic return generated over the year of `59418 per hectare followed by groundnut-vegetables (`53930/ha) and groundnut-gram (`52879/ha) combinations. Net gain to the farmers based on the alternative price scenarios viz. market, economic and natural resource valuation prices were estimated as `114.38 lakh, `114.45 lakh and `138.82 lakh, respectively. The overall gain to society has increased at economic prices by `49.39 lakh whereas it was decreased by `93.24 lakh at natural resource valuation due to the lack of cultivation of legume crops. The optimal plan is suggested that more area under cultivation of legume crops like groundnut, clusterbean and gram because of they are less water intensive and more environment friendly and thus have a positive impact on natural resource valuation with the existing water availability.