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Author: search.filters.author.Anupama RajeevanSubject: search.filters.subject.Hybrids

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    Economic analysis of seed production of select vegetables in Palakkad district
    (Department Of Agricultural Economics, College Of Agriculture , Vellanikkara, 2023-05-25) Anupama Rajeevan; Chitra Parayil
    Seed is regarded as the critical input in agriculture for increasing and sustaining agricultural production. It is estimated that the quality of seed accounts for 20-25 per cent of productivity (Anonymous, 2013). Use of quality seed is of utmost importance in order to realize the maximum utilization of other inputs viz., fertilizers, irrigation, pesticides and other improved agronomic practices. Quality and timely seed supplies are vital in maintaining vegetable production as well as availability for ensuring food security in developing countries. The production of vegetables has been touching new records every year, making it the most favoured agricultural commodity. Vegetable production during 2017-18 recorded an increase to 184 million tonnes from 10.3 million ha area, whereas it was less than 20 million tonnes during the period of independence. This manifold increase needs to be made consistent to meet the demand of 1.5 billion people by 2030 which could be attained by proper and timely utilization of different inputs involved in crop production (Mohan et al., 2022). Therefore, quality seed production plays a major role in Indian agriculture by providing food, nutritional and economic security and more importantly, producing higher returns per unit area and time. The study was based on primary data collected from VFPCK vegetable seed farmers of Chittur and Nenmara blocks of Palakkad district owing to their highest number in the respective blocks. The crops selected for the study were bitter gourd, snake gourd, ash gourd and pumpkin due to their higher proportion in area and production to the total vegetables in the study area. A total of 52 sample respondents each were randomly selected for bitter gourd and snake gourd and 40 each were selected for ash gourd and pumpkin. This accounted to a total sample size of 184 seed farmers from the study area. The cost of cultivation for seed production of four vegetables were worked out using tabular and percentage analysis. Human labour accounted for the highest percentage (50.9 in bitter gourd, 50.25 in snake gourd, 37.02 in ash gourd and 32.25 in pumpkin) to total cost in all the selected vegetables. The total cost of cultivation was found to be highest in bitter gourd with ₹2,70,669ha-1 followed by snake gourd (₹2,57,343ha-1), ash gourd (₹1,58,813ha-1) and pumpkin (₹1,45,621ha-1). The benefit cost ratios were found to be stable with 2.55 for bitter gourd, 2.24 for snake gourd, 1.96 for ash gourd and 2.02 for pumpkin. Also, the major operational cost in seed production for the four crops was found in manure application followed by fertilizer application and land preparation. The determinants of production of quality seeds were analyzed using multiple linear regression where the seed yield was regressed with the different parameters like fertilizers, manures, plant protection, human labour and experience of the farmer. In bitter gourd, manures, plant protection and experience of the farmer were found as the major determinants of quality seed production while in snake gourd it was manures, fertilizers and experience of the farmer. Fertilizers, human labour and experience of the farmer were found to affect the quality seed production in ash gourd. Besides these, fertilizers and experience of the farmer were found to contribute to production of quality seeds in pumpkin. The efficiency of the inputs involved in the seed production of the vegetables under study were analysed using Cobb-Douglas production function and quantity of manures and fertilizers were found to significantly influence the seed yield in bitter gourd and snake gourd. The ratio of MVP to MFC for manures and fertilizers in bitter gourd was found to be 0.70 and 0.58 respectively while in snake gourd it was 0.75 and 0.71 respectively which indicated the overutilization of the resources. In ash gourd and pumpkin, fertilizer was found to be the factor significantly influencing the seed yield with a value of 0.75 and 0.61 respectively indicating overutilization of the resource. The analysis of the constraints in seed production of the vegetables was done using Garrett ranking technique. The major constraint identified which limited the seed production in the selected vegetables in the area was climatic variability followed by the incidence of pests and diseases where mosaic was identified as the major disease and fruit fly as the major pest. The requirement of a higher isolation distance was also another factor that constrained the seed production of the selected vegetables in the study area. It can thus be concluded that the development of climate resilient and pest and disease tolerant varieties would help the farmers to reap higher benefits by overcoming the vagaries of weather and challenge of pests and diseases incidence. Also, the development of high yielding variety seeds should be taken up in order to reduce the use of hybrid seeds which are popular among the farmers currently and are relatively costlier, thus the cost of cultivation of vegetables could be brought down sizably.