MSc

Betel vine (Piper betle L., family Piperaceae) is a traditional, widely cultivated, economically and medicinally important crop of India. In Kerala, the production of betel vine was 9150 tonnes and the area occupied by betel vine cultivation was 256.11 ha during the period 2020-2021(Farm Guide, 2023). Tirur and nearby areas of Malappuram district are famous for betel vine cultivation with an area of 100.81 ha (Farm Guide,2023). Tirur vettila, as it is commonly called, obtained a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in the year 2019. Tirur betel leaf is more pungent than betel leaf produced in other areas. It’s freshness is retained for a longer period due to leaf thickness. The most common cultivars of betel vine in this region are Puthukodi and Nadan. Betel vine farmers in the study area commonly followed two major planting systems, i.e., Koottakodi and Ottakodi.
The present study entitled “Economic analysis on the production and marketing of Tirur Betel leaf” analyzed the costs and returns of Tirur betel leaves, identified the marketing channels, estimated marketing margin, price spread and marketing efficiency and documented the cultural practices followed by farmers.
The largest area under Tirur betel leaf cultivation in Kerala was reported in Malappuram and therefore the district was selected purposively as the study area. Forty farmers from Kuttipuram block, 22 farmers from Malappuram block and 16 farmers from Tanur block were randomly selected from the list of farmers and thus making a total sample size of 78 farmers. A total of 30 traders were also selected to study and analyze the marketing aspects of this cash crop. The major socio- economic characteristics studied were age, gender, educational level, experience in farming, family size, occupational status, annual income and land holding size of the sample farmers. It was observed that majority of the sample respondents fell under the age group of 45-60 years & above 60 years and no respondents fell under the age group of less than 30 years. This showed that the younger generation were not taking up Betel vine cultivation in the study area. Male farmers dominated in Betel vine cultivation (94 per cent). This may be due to the fact that it involved relatively laborious cultivation practices. Majority (74 per cent) of the farmers had education

up to SSLC. It could also be observed that nearly 90 per cent of the farmers had an experience between 10-30 years and 10 per cent of them had more than 30 years of experience in cultivation of Betel vine. Thus, majority of the farmers possessed at least 10 years of experience in cultivation. About 69 per cent of the sample respondents had a family size between 4-6 and 31 per cent had a relatively larger family size of more than six which is greater than the state’s average (3.9 NSSO,2018). The occupational status showed that 89 per cent depended solely on agriculture. It could be observed that 51 per cent of the sample respondents earned a relatively higher income of above 2 lakhs per annum. Compound annual growth rate was computed using Logest formula in excel. Analysis of area, production and productivity of Betel vine in Kerala showed that the compound growth rates from 2012-13 to 2020-21 was -4.66 percent. The growth rate for production and productivity were -8.72 and -4.26 respectively.
Though both Ottakodi and Koottakodi systems were followed among farmers of the study area, most of them cultivated betel vine by Ottakodi system (92 per cent). The cost of cultivation was analyzed using tabular and percentage analysis. The cost of cultivation in Koottakodi system was estimated as Rs.86,823 ha-1 and the net returns was Rs.1,38,177 ha-1. The cost of production was worked out to be Rs.57.88 Kg-1. The average price received by the farmer was Rs.150 Kg-1. The Benefit-cost ratio in Koottakodi system was calculated as 2.6. The cost of cultivation of Betel vine in Ottakkodi system was estimated as Rs.62,579 ha-1 and the net returns was Rs.1,32,421 ha-1. The average cost of production was Rs.48.14 Kg-1. The Ottakodi method was determined to have a benefit-cost ratio of 3.1, which was relatively more remunerative when compared to Koottakodi because of the fact that the initial establishment cost was higher in the latter system and also the total cost of cultivation was found to be lower in Ottakodi system compared to Koottakodi system.
Tirur paan bazar is a famous market in Tirur which was established exclusively for the marketing of Tirur Betel leaf. Among the four marketing channels studied, channel IV was found to be most efficient. The total marketing

cost and total marketing margin were found to be lower (Rs.15Kg-1 and Rs.30Kg-1) in this channel.
Channel IV: Producer Wholesaler Ayurvedic medicine producers

The analysis of the constraints in Betel vine cultivation was done using Garrett ranking technique. The major constraint faced by the farmers in Betel vine cultivation was the high labour cost. This was followed by climate change, price fluctuations, low yield, post-harvest losses and pest and disease attack. Specific cultural practices in Betel vine include staking, trailing the vines and mulching in Koottakodi system whereas in Ottakodi system trailing the vines and lowering of vines were the most common cultural practices followed in the area.
It can thus be concluded that branding of Tirur betel leaf would help the farmers to fetch premium price due to the GI tag. Also, value addition activities should be taken up by the FPO like preparation of medicines, mouth freshners, essential oils etc. in order to fully tap the potential of Tirur betel leaf.