The Cultivation Register

In one line

The cultivation register is the record of each field and each crop: the area, the variety, the dates, every operation performed, every input applied, the labour used, and the yield obtained.

If the muster roll is the labour record and the stock book the material record, the cultivation register is the record that brings them together on one field, and it is the only one of the thirteen from which a cost per hectare can be computed.

Why it is kept

1. To record what was sown where, when and of what variety.
2. To record every operation and the date of it.
3. To record the inputs applied, in quantity.
4. To record the labour used, from the muster roll, by operation.
5. To record the yield, in quantity.
6. To arrive at the cost of cultivation per hectare and per quintal, which is the single most useful figure a farm produces.
7. To compare this season with the last, and this field with that one.

The specimen

Shivneri Farm, Baramati. Cultivation register. Field No. 4. Area 3.20 hectares. Crop: cotton, variety Bt-II. Season: kharif 2026.

Yield: 34.8 quintals of seed cotton. Cost per hectare Rs. 17,094. Cost per quintal Rs. 1,572.

(Labour days and rates come from the muster roll, at Rs. 350 a day. Input quantities come from the issue register and are valued at the rate in the stock book. Bullock and tractor hours are recorded here but charged through the apportionment below, not twice. Irrigation, land revenue, depreciation on deadstock and the proprietor’s supervision are apportioned separately.)

How the register is written up

One folio per field per crop per season. Never one register for the whole farm: the field is the cost centre and mixing two fields makes the whole exercise pointless.

Each operation is entered on the day it is performed, from the overseer's diary. Labour comes from the muster roll, in days, and is valued at the rates on that roll. Inputs come from the issue register, in quantity, and are valued at the rate in the stock book.