Food Science and Agriculture: Research Highlights Vol. 7

Land degradation has become a serious challenge to sustainable agriculture and rural livelihoods, particularly in regions affected by soil salinity, waterlogging, and declining soil fertility. In Haryana, intensive agricultural practices and improper land and water management have accelerated the degradation of productive farmland, adversely impacting crop productivity and farmers’ income. This chapter evaluates the economic effects of the problem of land degradation on growing Bajra and mustard in Jhajjar district of Haryana, where the problem of waterlogging, salinity, and drainage is associated with the emergence of problematic farm conditions. This district was chosen as the study area since it exemplifies one of the most affected districts within the state, which makes possible a comparison of farming productivity between normal and problematic farms. The primary data on these two types of farms were gathered using the well structured questionnaire from 60 farmers for the agricultural year 2024-2025, while the economics evaluation was performed by means of applying the comparative cost-return analysis of both crops. Measures such as variable cost, fixed cost, total cost, gross return, net return, returns over variable cost, and benefit-cost ratio were used. According to the obtained results, normal farms had greater total costs yet significantly better gross return and net return compared to problematic farms in terms of growing both Bajra and mustard. Also, the crop of mustard was proved to be more economically efficient than that of Bajra.