The present study has been undertaken with Manipur as the focus area of the research work with the objectives to examine the cost of cultivation and return analysis of transplanted paddy of tribe and non-tribe sample respondents and to analyze the cost and return of jhum paddy of tribal sample households. Chandel District and Chandel sub-division had been purposively selected for this research work. 200 samples (150 tribal households and 50 non-tribal households) have been selected at random from four sample villages. After the selection of villages, a list of households with their operational holdings is prepared for the four villages from the secondary data obtained from the Sub-division Office. All the households are classified into four groups, viz., non-agriculturists, Group I (no operational holdings); marginal, Group II (less than 1 hectare of operational holdings); small, Group III (1.01-2 hectares of operational holdings); and large, Group IV (2.01 hectares and above of operational holdings).The reference period of the study is the agricultural year 2006-07. In the study, Cost concepts have been extensively used. The cost of cultivation of transplanted paddy for tribal sample households is found to be highest in Group IV (Rs.12,198); followed by Group III (Rs.11,837); and lowest in Group II (Rs.11,637). Irrespective of groups, human labour accounted for a major portion of the total cost. It is also found that in case of transplanted paddy the gross return increases with the increase in operational holdings for both tribal and non-tribal sample households, which ranges from Rs.18,000 for Group II to Rs.19,200 for Group IV for tribal sample households; and from Rs.27,200 (Group II) to Rs.30,400 (Group IV) for non-tribal sample households. The total cost of cultivation of 0.25 hectares of paddy under Jhum cultivation is found to be Rs.8027 in the sample area. And Cost A1 is found to be about Rs.2827. The gross return from cultivating 0.25 hectares of Jhum paddy is worked out to be Rs.8100. The surplus over Cost A1 is about Rs.5272, but there is very little surplus over Cost D. The Return – cost ratio at Cost A1 is 2.86 but the same at Cost D is 1.01, which is almost equal to unity.