Lentil is a legume crop, renowned for its nutritional values required for our diet. Area under lentil India is 1.41 million ha which is contribution of 20 per cent of the world’s total area and 25 per cent of global production. India till now not sufficient in pulse production, therefore, horizontal and vertical expansion of high yielding varieties of lentil is utmost required. Kumar and Malik (2022) analyse the compound growth rates from 1970-71 to 2016-17(CGRs) of area, production and yield of pulses in India with 0.14, 1.09 and 0.97 per cent respectively. For increasing lentil production optimum allocation of resources are required. Low energy inputs, infertile soil, fragmented land holding are the major constraints of lentil cultivation which leads to deficit in pulse production apart from some biophysical factors. Singh et al. (2020) revealed that due to variation in agro-climatic parameters, soil fertility, biotic stresses, socio-economic status and management practices gap, technology gap and index percentage were observed and which can be minimized by encouraging the farmers to adopt sustainable technological practices for enhancing the production and productivity of pulse crops. In Indian and Assam Farming system, pulse is an important component. But farmers are unaware about high yielding varieties of pulse especially lentil in Assam. Singh et al. (2022) revealed in their 3 years study that improved variety viz. PL-8 and IPL-316 increased the average productivity by 32.53 percent, 59.69 percent and 44.85 percent respectively and increased the net return by approximately Rs. 15,431.00. Bhowmik et al. (2022) assessed that lentil var. KL-320, chickpea variety NBEG-49 and field pea variety IPFD-10-12 have good potentiality and most suitable for West Bengal Region.
               
In the state of Assam, the area under pulse and its production are also quite low compared to other states as mentioned by Deka et al. (2025). It is seen that area under lentil cultivation in Nagaon district is 1753 ha having multiple risks and uncertainties. The lentil growers of Nagaon and Hojai district of Central Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam, India faces multiple risks and uncertainties influenced by biophysical and socioeconomic factors.  Importance of lentil study in terms of production and marketing aspects is utmost necessary in Assam. Barman et al. (2025) stated in their study that availability is pulse is 7858 MT and demand for the same is 50247.8856 indicating deficit in the pulse in the district. To meet the deficit, pulse productivity should be increased from .632 MT/ha to 4.40 MT/ha with the help of technology backstopping, high-yielding varieties and policy interventions. Therefore, the present study was carried out to examine the input and operational costs, marketing efficiency of lentil crop in Central Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam, India.

The study was conducted during 2024-25 in Central Brahmaputra Valley Zone of Assam comprising of two districts viz., Nagaon and Hojai. The sampling design followed for the study was four stage stratified stage random sampling, where Central Brahmaputra Valley Zone is the first stage unit, Nagaon and Hojai were the second stage unit, villages were the third and the sample farmers were the fourth and ultimate stage of units. In Nagaon district, Puronigudam, Sologuri villages were selected for Bajiagaon block and Gahi Bhatikuri and Pachim salmara villages were selected under Raha block, Bengenaati and Sialmari villages under Pakhimoria block and Borkacharigaon and Rangaloo villages were selected under Kathiatali block. Similarly, under Hojai district, barbeel and Dakhin Jaroni villages were selected. After selection of the villages, 20 farmers from each village were selected. Thus, a total of 200 number of lentil growers were selected for the study. With the help of pretested schedule, primary where data were collected. The collected data were compiled and tabulated for the purpose of analysis. In order to get economics of lentil cultivation, different cost concept is used.
       
The details of cost concepts which were used in the study are as under:
Cost-A: It includes:
1. Value of hired human labour.
2. Value of hired bullock labour.
3. Value of owned bullock labour.
4. Value of tractor charges.
5. Value of seed/seedlings (both farms produced and purchased).
6. Value of manure and cakes (owned farm and purchased).
7. Value of fertilizers.
8. Value of insecticides and pesticides.
9. Irrigation charges.
10. Depreciation on farm building and implements.
11. Interest on working capital.
12. Other paid out expenses, if any.
Cost-B= Cost A + Rental value of owned land + Interest on value of owned fixed capital (excluding land).
Cost C1= Cost B + imputed value of family labour.
Cos C2= Cost C1 + 10 per cent of cost C1, as managerial charges [B].
       
Net returns Net return per hectare at the different costs concept was worked by deducting the respective costs from the gross returns per hectare.
       
Again, in order to examine marketing aspect of lentil, data were collected not only from sample cultivators but from intermediaries also. A list of all the markets in Hojai and Nagaon were obtained from farmer growers. Four marketing channels were identified. From each selected market channel, 10 numbers of wholesalers, commission agent, village merchant, retailer were selected, thereby constituting 40 intermediaries in the study, where marketing efficiency and price spread were calculated. 
 
Market efficiency = Net price received by producer + total marketing cost + total margins of intermediaries.

Many factors affected the yield of lentil under the study area. The following factors are listed as mentioned.
 
Operational cost
 
Tillage cost for preparatory
 
From Table 1, it is clearly revealed that in Raha block, the preparatory cost of lentil field was significantly higher (Rs.3435.00/ha) as compared to others blocks of Nagaon and Hojai district. This might be due to poorly drained soil, requiring more tillage than other blocks. Priya et al. (2022) also stated that because of a greater number of cultural operations and labour charges leading to higher cost of cultivation with chickpea and oats fodder (2:1) than other intercropping method.


 
Irrigation before sowing
 
In Raha block, pre-sowing irrigation cost is higher at Rs.345.00/ha among the other blocks of study area followed by Kathiatali, Pakhimori, Lanka and Bajiagaon at Rs.310.00/ha, Rs.250.00/ha, Rs.255.00/ha and Rs.210.00/ha respectively indicating   all were on par with each other. Bajiagaon block (Rs.210.00/ha) need less irrigation cost before sowing which might be due to flat area in the lentil field which retain moisture resulting in less cost involvement.

Cost of sowing
 
The cost of sowing is highest at Bajiagaon block (Rs.1240.00/ha) than Raha, Kathiatali and Pakhimoria blocks of Nagaon district but on par with Lanka block (Rs.1234.00/ha) of Hojai district. In Bajiagaon block, sowing cost is highest might be due to labour availability and wage rate which significantly increase the cost of sowing.
 
Fertilizer application, manual hoeing
 
Fertilizer application was highest in Pakhimoria followed by Raha, Kathiatali and Bajiagaon respectively. This might be due to input availability and improper agricultural practices prevails in those areas, where extension services might be needed to reduce cost and increase efficiency. But among all blocks of Nagaon and Hojai district, at Pakhimoria block, manual hoeing is lowest (Rs.155.00/ha).
 
Harvesting, threshing and transportation cost
 
The harvesting cost was higher at Nagaon district (Rs.4458.00/ha) than Hojai district (Rs.4321.00/ha). Among all blocks of Nagaon district, harvesting cost was highest at Kathiatali block (Rs.4489.00/ha) followed by Pakhimoria (Rs.4489.00/ha), Raha (Rs.4450.00/ha) and Bajiagaon (Rs.4326.00/ha) respectively. It was estimated that threshing cost was higher at Hojai district (Rs.4876.00/ha) than Nagaon (Rs.4494.50/ha). Similarly, transportation charges also higher in case of Pakhimoria (Rs.445.00/ha) block than the other blocks.
 
Input cost and correlation between input and yield
 
Independent variable cost is presented on Table 3 and it is seen that highest cost was incurred in seed cost at Kampur block (Rs.34350.00/ha) followed by Raha block (Rs.33000.00/ha) in Nagaon district. However, the rest blocks in Nagon and Hojai were on par. Similarly, cost of fertilizer application and seed treatment were on par in all the blocks with exception in Kathiatali block in cost of fertilizer and its application which was lowest (Rs.778.00/ha). Seed cost was highest among all the independent variable and chemical weeding hoeing and manual, insecticide cost, disease cost are lowest among all independent variable. Similar results were observed in the research findings of Ghimire et al., (2024) and Leharwan et al. (2023).
       
Table 2 explained the correlation between dependent and independent variables. It was observed that FYM quantity, irrigation and manual weeding had positive and significant impact on yield whereas the other four independent variable viz., input used, DAP (kg/ha), chemical weeding and insecticide had found insignificance impact on yield.  FYM quantity (r= 0.243, P<0.05), Irrigation (r=0.181, P<0.05) and Manual weeding (r=0.457, P<0.05) had positive and significant impact on yield. Singh et al. (2016) conducted a study on lentil based existing cropping system and observed that in lentil-based cropping systems (B: C ratio -3.11-3.77) was economically efficient than non-lentil-based cropping system (B:C ratio -1.17 to 1.72).


       
Table 3 depicted the correlation between inputs and yield, where yield was found to be positively correlated with FYM quantity (r = 0.243, P<0.0001), manual weeding (r=0.181, P<0.05) and irrigation (r = 0.272, P<0.0001). It means that the lentil growers in Central Brahmaputra Valley must take care of application of FYM in their fields, irrigation and manual weeding in order to get good yield.


       
Fig 1 shows the distribution channel of the lentil from producer (farmers) to the consumers through different intermediaries. The channels identified were as follows:
1. Producer-consumer.
2. Producer-village merchant-retailer-consumer.
3. Producer-village merchant- Commission Agent-retailer-consumer.
4. Producer-village merchant-Commission Agent- Wholesaler-retailer-consumer.


 
Producer-consumer
 
This channel was the shortest channel which accounted for 55 percent of the total total lentil marketed. In this channel larger amount of lentil was sold to consumer.
 
Producer-village merchant-consumer
 
The study of this channel showed that 10.00 per cent of the total produced lentil flowed through this channel. The village merchants bought from the farmers and directly sold to the consumer in local market.
 
Producer-village merchant-commission agent-retailer-consumer
 
This channel showed that 23.00 per cent of the total marketed lentil flows from this channel. The village merchant purchased lentil from farmers and sold to the Commission agent and Commission agent sold to retailer and ultimately retailer sold to the consumer.
 
Producer-village merchant-commission agent-wholesaler-retailer-consumer
 
It was found that 11.50 per cent of total lentil flowed through this channel from farmer to consumer which was the longest channel. 
       
The data depicted in Table 4 and Table 5 represent marketing cost, margin of different intermediaries along with price spread. It was depicted in Table 5 that Channel 1 is the best efficient channel as price spread is 0 as the difference beteen the price paid by the consumer and price received by the producer is called price spread. Price spread is different from channel to channel. The result revealed that highest marketing cost was observed in Channel IV while highest margin was observed in Channel I.  Marketing efficiency was observed 1.019, 2.955, 1.746 and 1.467 for Channel I, Channel II, Channel III and Channel IV respectively. In case of Channel II and channel III cost incurred was almost equivalent but margin difference is high. In channel I, price received by the farmers are highest indicating that channel I is the most efficient marketing channel without middlemen involvement. This finding is in conformity with Singh et al. (2020) and Verma et al. (2023) that marketing channel-III (producer and processor only) was found most efficient with an efficiency of 12.03. The producers’ share in consumer rupee is highest in Channel I at 81.82 per cent followed by Channel II, Channel III and Channel IV at 62.50, 57.89 and 54.46 per cent respectively.

Based on the study, it can be concluded that fertilizer application was highest in Pakhimoria followed by Raha, Kathiatali and Bajiagaon block respectively in Central Brahmaputra Valley Zone, Assam. This might be due to input availability and improper agricultural practices prevails in the study area, where extension services might be needed to reduce cost and increase efficiency. Again, result revealed that highest marketing cost was observed in Channel IV while highest margin was observed in Channel I.  Marketing efficiency was observed 1.019, 2.955, 1.746 and 1.467 for Channel I, Channel II, Channel III and Channel IV respectively. In case of Channel II and channel III cost incurred was almost equivalent but margin difference is high. In channel I price received farmer is highest indicating that channel I is the most efficient marketing channel without middlemen involvement. In India, government procures lentil at MSP rate of Rs 6,425.00 per quintal and accordingly masur dal was collected from farmers through the marketing agency and to encourage and for self-sufficiency Government aimed to procure 100 per cent  of tur, urad by 2028-29. There was need for government to subsidies price of seeds and to encourage more hybrid seeds that will enhance more outputs. It is seen that FYM quantity, Irrigation and manual weeding had positive significant impact on yield means that the lentil growers must take care of their application in their fields in order to get good yield.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the invaluable contributions of the farmers involved in lentil cultivation, as well as the support extended by the staff of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Nagaon and Assam Agricultural University, whose cooperation was instrumental in facilitating the successful execution of this study.

Disclaimers
 
The opinions and conclusions presented in this research article are exclusively those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the perspectives of their affiliated institutions. While the authors have taken due care to ensure the accuracy and completeness of the information contained herein, they disclaim any responsibility or liability for any direct, indirect or consequential losses arising from the use of this content.
 
Informed consent
 
Prior to collecting data, informed consent was obtained from each of the respondents. These respondents received an explanation of the intent of the research, their freedom to decide whether or not to take part in this study, as their right to withdraw at any stage of this study. The confidentiality of the information collected was respected and used solely for research purposes. The research adhered to established guidelines for conduct of research in social sciences.

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest regarding the publication of this article. No funding or sponsorship influenced the design of the study, data collection, analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.