MSc

The present study entitled “Impact of Vegetable Development Programme on
farmers’ income in Malappuram district of Kerala” was carried out in the Department
of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture, Vellayani during the period 2019-
21 to study the status of vegetable growing farmers in Malappuram district and how
the programme is helping them to attain efficiency. Different aspects of both
beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the programme were critically analyzed in the
study. The socio-economic characteristics of farmers were also studied during the
time period. An attempt was also made to identify the constraints faced by farmers
and officials while implementing the programme.
The study was mainly done in Malappuram district which was purposively
selected as it is one of the major districts growing vegetables in Kerala. Moreover,
graded cluster which is the main component of VDP is also active in the district.
Perinthalmanna block was purposively selected because it is one of the major
vegetable producing areas in the district with maximum area covered under VDP.
From the block, two panchayaths were selected randomly. Sixty farmers were
selected randomly from both panchayaths so as to make a sample size of 120. The
farmers were classified into beneficiary and non-beneficiary based on their
participation in the programme. Ten officials from Department of Agriculture
Development and Farmers’ Welfare, GoK were also interviewed to collect
information regarding the constraints faced by them in implementing the programme
The socio-economic characteristics of the farmers were studied based on age,
gender, education, family size, experience in vegetable cultivation, occupation, land
holding pattern, tenancy status and cropping pattern. The analysis showed that
majority of the respondents both in beneficiaries and non- beneficiaries fell under the
age group 51-60 years i.e. 38.33 per cent and 41.66 per cent respectively. Majority of
the farmers undertaking vegetable cultivation under vegetable clusters were males
(96.66%).The analysis of educational status of the farmers revealed that majority of
the respondent farmers had primary education (70.83%). The average family size was
found to be 5.64; hence family labour was mostly utilized by them. Majority of the
farmers 438.33%) were having 31 to 40 years of experience. The percentage of
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sample farmers who chose agriculture as their main occupation was higher in nonbeneficiaries (93.33%) than in beneficiaries (90%). Majority of the sample farmers
(84.16 %) were cultivating in their own land and only a few (15.83%) were
cultivating in leased land. Cropping pattern analysis of respondents revealed that both
beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries were having largest proportion of area under bottle
gourd (17.45% and 17.90% respectively), cucumber (17.26% and 17.00%
respectively) and pumpkin (16.49% and 16.66% respectively).
The economics of cultivation of beneficiaries and non beneficiaries of
vegetable clusters was compared for three crops namely pumpkin, bottle gourd and
cucumber. The per hectare cost of cultivation of all the crops was found to be higher
for non-beneficiaries than for beneficiaries. Cost A1 for beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries were estimated as ₹.72,857.85/ha and ₹.77,634.07/ha for pumpkin
cultivation, ₹.78,846.90/ha and ₹ 76,086.52/ha for bottle gourd cultivation and
₹.74,371.09/ha and ₹ 77,840.47/ha for cucumber cultivation respectively. The yield
and returns obtained from each crop by both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries were
also tabulated. For Pumpkin farmers beneficiaries had a yield of 33,762.21 kg/ha and
non-beneficiaries harvested 31,992.56 kg per hectare. A net returns of ₹ 61,005.29
and ₹ 25,654.96 was obtained by beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries respectively
under pumpkin cultivation. Similar results were seen in the case of bottle gourd and
cucumber growing farmers also. Beneficiaries were having higher yield and net
returns than the non-beneficiaries. A yield of 30,489.63 kg/ha and 30,241.58 kg/ha
was achieved by beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries doing bottle gourd cultivation
whereas for cucumber growers the yield obtained were 30,956.25 kg/ha and
29,541.57 kg/ha respectively. The net returns obtained by beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries doing bottle gourd cultivation were 40,390.33 Rs/ha and 10,900.25
Rs/ha respectively and that of cucumber farmers were 47,833.31Rs/ha and
10,406.29Rs/ha. This indicated that the vegetable cluster beneficiaries were far more
efficient than the non-beneficiaries. The income measures were also estimated for
both group of farmers and beneficiaries were found to be more efficient than the nonbeneficiaries. The main reason for less cost of cultivation of the beneficiaries was the
subsidy availed by them on different inputs. The cost of cultivation at Cost A1
revealed that hired labour accounted the highest cost for both beneficiaries and non-
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beneficiaries for all crops. Benefit cost ratio at all the cost levels were calculated for
both beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries and was found high for beneficiaries.
The resource use efficiency of pumpkin cultivation revealed that area, seed,
manures, plant protection chemicals and family labour were significantly contributing
to the yield of beneficiaries and non- beneficiaries. Seeds and plant protection
chemicals were found to be over utilized by beneficiaries. The resource use efficiency
of bottle gourd cultivation revealed that area, fertilizers, family labour and hired
labour had a positive significant impact on yield of beneficiaries and nonbeneficiaries. Seeds and fertilizers were underutilized by beneficiaries whereas
manures, fertilizers and hired labour were underutilized by non-beneficiaries.
Similarly the resource use efficiency of cucumber cultivation revealed that all inputs
except manures and fertilizers had a positive significant impact on yield of
beneficiaries and all inputs except manures and hired labour showed positive
significant impact on yield of non-beneficiaries. Seeds, plant protection chemicals and
hired labour were over utilized by the beneficiaries and manures, family labour and
hired labour were over utilized by non-beneficiary farmers.
The most important constraint expressed by the farmers were high labour cost
followed by price fluctuation and problems in marketing of the produce by farmer.
The major constraints faced by the officials while implementing the programme were
the untimely sanctioning of the subsidy, reluctance of youngsters to participate in
VDP and less office staff for inspection. More support should be given for group
farming initiatives like cluster development, so that they can pool family labour for
vegetable cultivation. Also, co-ordination between extension officials and farmers
must be strengthened for proper technology transfer so as to uplift vegetable
cultivation. In addition proper measures must be taken for the timely sanctioning of
the subsidy so that they can use the amount as capital for next crop season.