. Introduction Beginning of a vegetable crop nursery requires large capital investment. Expenses include equipment, buildings, cold storage, supplies, plant material, drainage and installation of an irrigation system. A greenhouse or overwintering structure is also needed. Additional costs include labor, utilities, insurance, licenses, and inspections. Small Nursery holders produce nursery plants for sale in the local markets while the larger nurserymen who can afford better infrastructure are targeting large and distant markets.

Measures for Better Returns 1.Better quality nursery plants attracts better prices. Better quality includes popular variety, good growth vigor and free from insect or disease attack. 2.Studying the potential of target market, its demands and seasons of marketing. 3.Nurserymen while working in groups can economically optimize the use of resources, plan the crops to be produced and reach markets which can fetch a better prices.

Production Cost Costs of nursery plant production include overhead cost, direct cost and marketing costs. Overhead costs includes Taxes, depreciation, interest, rent, utilities, insurance, maintenance and repair, new construction, new equipment, supplies, salaries and wages. Direct costs includes purchasing seed, potting media, manures and fertilizers, plant protection pesticides and their applications. Marketing costs involve the expenses incurred on advertising, transport, marketing and actual sale of the plants.

Growing Plants in Smaller Containers Growing plants in smaller containers can reduce the production costs. It also reduces time needed to produce the plants. Selling plants at wholesale prices can also reduce the cost on advertising, transport and marketing.

Infrastructural Cost: Infrastructural cost of the nursery includes the basic costs of setting of nursery. Fencing, office & store. Infrastructural cost varies in nurseries which use green houses, poly houses and other structures for maintaining the microclimates conducive for plant growth and germination. Infrastructural cost increases with increasing automation in these structures but reduces the expenses incurred on management of labour and wages.

Production Methods: Tomato seedlings can be produced by sowing in seed beds, protrays or small containers. Planting in seed beds is most economical but the losses of resources like water, fertilizers and pesticides are relatively more. It also increases cost on labour for frequent weeding in nursery beds. The seedlings in nursery need to be uprooted carefully for sale that can reduce the mortality of seedlings and the cost of production.

Sowing of Seed beds: Tomato seeds can be sown in nursery beds or in seedling trays. Both these methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Sowing seeds in seed beds is less expensive but uses more resources like seeds, irrigation water, fertilizers compared to other methods, which makes management of seed beds more expensive. In addition to this, there is higher mortality of seedlings in seed beds at various growth stages from germination to uprooting. Seedlings in beds cannot be provided with equal quantities of nutrition to all seedlings, which may lead to uneven and stunted growth of seedlings on seed beds.

Sowing on Trays: Growing seedling in Trays is costlier. But it can optimize the use of growth media, seedlings and irrigation water. Fertilizers and nutrients applied to seedlings can be directly provided to individual seedlings, which results in to vigorous seedling growth and uniform crop stand. Seedling mortality reduces due to even distribution of nutrients to all seedlings. Uprooting of seedlings is not necessary in tray system, which further reduces the seedling mortality. Seedlings are directly sold in the trays which also makes the transportation easier and reduces seedling mortality in the process.

Irrigation Systems: Overhead system and Drip system are widely used irrigation systems: Overhead irrigation system is designed to cover a large area and installation is less expensive. This method provides uneven water distribution which can reduce seedling growth, encourage disease, and contribute to runoff of excess irrigation water. Drip Irrigation system uses 60-70% less water than overhead systems. It has higher installation cost but has superior application efficiency and less affected by wind and crop canopy and produces less runoff of irrigation water. Drip system of irrigation is preferred in tomato nursery even though it is expensive in installation.

Comparative Study of irrigation systems: CriteriaOverhead SprinklersDrip Irrigation Installation cost/AcreModerateModerate to high Maintenance costLowHigh DurabilityExcellentLow Labor expensesLowModerate-high Water distributionFairFairly good Water use efficiencyPoorGood Pump requiredHigh pressureLow pressure Water volume requiredLargeSmall Wind effect on distributionSerious effectsNo effects Comparison of two irrigation systems in Tomato Nursery

Growing Media in Tomato Nursery: Media used in the nursery also affects the cost of production of tomato nursery plants. Soil media and soil less media are two types of media used in the nursery. Soil media is cheaper than soil less media and other organic media. Use of soil as a media has inherent problems like drainage, contamination, aeration, etc. While the properties of soil less media like Ph and nutrient status need to be confirmed before its use as growth media. Production of Compost or Farm Yard Manure at the nursery level can reduce the cost on purchased media to some extent.