PG Thesis
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://localhost:4000/handle/123456789/2
Browse
3 results
Search Results
Item Economic analysis on the production and marketing of Tirur betel leaf(Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, 2024-01-16) Binu, V K; Chitra ParayilBetel 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.Item Production and marketing of pineapple in Trichur District(Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 1982) Jesy Thomas, K; Mukundan, KA study on the production and marketing of pineapple in Trichur district was conducted during March-April, 1982 to evaluate the costs and returns of pineapple production, the marketing costs and price spread as well as the problems faced by the cultivators. Simple random sampling was adopted for selecting the sample and fifty cultivators were surveyed by personal interview method. The total cost of cultivation per hectare of pineapple for four years for the district was found to be Rs.30334.92 and cost was highest for the first year being Rs.13289.92 (42.55 per cent).The major item of expenditure was human labour constituting about 59.32 per cent (Rs.17995) of the total costs. Expenditure on fertilizer accounted for 24.25 per cent (Rs.7356) and that for suckers 6.78 per cent (Rs.2056) for the district. With regard to the operation-wise cost of cultivation, manuring and earthing occupied a major share of 39.48 per cent (Rs.11976) and for weeding the expenditure was Rs.6656 (24.04 per cent). Pineapple starts yielding in the second year and maximum returns was found to obtain in the third year with Rs.18934 per hectare for the district. The returns in the second and fourth year were Rs.11626 and Rs.12476 respectively. Cost of production per quintal of pineapple fruits was highest in the second year (Rs.79.26) and lowest in the third year with Rs.54.82 for the district. The pay-back period was 2.77 years, with a benefit cost ratio of 1.31, net present worth of Rs.8258.09 and internal rate of return of 43.37 per cent. The number of suckers per hectare was the factor which was found to be significant in the regression analysis. The main marketing channel in the case of pineapple was producer Commission/agent wholesaler ----Retailer ---- consumer channel. The marketing efficiency assessed on the basis of price-spread and marketing costs revealed that there was a high price spread of Rs.94 per quintal and the producers got only 51.79 per cent of the consumer’s price, while wholesalers and retailers got 17.69 per cent and 20.77 per cent margins respectively. Pineapple was marketed as fresh fruit commonly, but the canning industries in Trichur make a number of canned products such as squash, slices, titbits etc. High cost of inputs, fluctuation in prices and improper marketing facilities etc. are the problems faced by the cultivators in this district. Non-availability of sufficient fruits to factories become a serious problem in the case of canning units.Item Economic analysis of production, marketing and price behavior of tapioca(Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 2018) Athira, E; Jesy Thomas, KTapioca (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a staple food crop cultivated in several developing countreis around the globe. Among the tropical root and tuber crops, tapioca stands first in terms of area and production. India is the tenth largest producer of tapioca with production of 8.10 million tonnes from an area of 2.17 lakh hectares. India acquires its significance in global tapioca economy due to highest productivity in the world (36.4 t/ha). Among Indian states Kerala stands second in production of tapioca. The area under tapioca was showing a declining trend from the eighties which has resulted in stagnant production. In the above background, the present study was carried out with the objective of analysing the trend in area, production and productivity and price behaviour of tapioca, estimating the economics and resource use efficiency of tapioca production, identifying the marketing channels, estimating marketing costs, margins and marketing efficiency and finding out the major constraints in production and marketing of tapioca in Kerala. The study is based on both primary and secondary data. The time series data on area, production and productivity of tapioca in Kerala and India for a period of 1950-51 to 2016-17 were collected to study the trend and growth rate. Monthly average prices of tapioca in various markets of Kerala were collected to evaluate the trend and price behaviour of tapioca over the period 2002 to 2018. Primary data was collected form 120 selected farmers of Kollam district and Malappuram district using pretested interview schedule by personal interview method. Trend analysis was done to understand the growth pattern of tapioca in terms of area, production and productivity both at national and state level from 1950-51 to 2016-17. In India production and productivity of tapioca showed an increasing trend but the area was showing a declining trend. In the case of Kerala, similar trend was observed with negative growth in area for the entire period of study, but the growth for the entire period of study, but the growth rate in production was positive due to high and positive growth rate in productivity. The price behavior of tapioca in major markets of Kerala viz., Kozhikode, Ernakulam and Chalai were analyzed by decomposing the monthly price data into four components viz., secular trend, seasonal variation, cyclical variation and irregular variation assuming a multiplicative model of time series. The price of tapioca in these markets showed an increasing trend in the long run. While analyzing the seasonal variation it was noticed that during the entire study period (2002 to 2018), price of tapioca showed wide fluctuations in all the three markets. Due to high fluctuations in price no definite cycles were seen in the market prices. Co-integration analysis of tapioca prices in the above three markets were carried out and it was revealed all the three markets were integrated. In order to provide additional evidence on the direction of price transmission, Granger causality test was carried out and the results proved the existence of causality between Kozhikode and Ernakulam markets in the long run in both the directions. Unidirectional causality was found between Kozhikode and Chalai markets and Ernakulam and Chalai markets. The cost and returns were estimated using ABC cost concepts. The cost of cultivation per hectare was Rs.1, 54,619 with a net return of Rs. 43,190. It was noted that human labour accounted for 48.50 per cent of the total cost. To evaluate resource use efficiency in tapioca cultivation, Cobb-Douglas production function was fitted. Human labour and experience in farming were found to be significantly and experience in tapioca cultivation, Cobb-Douglas production function was fitted. Human labour and experience in farming were found to be significantly contributing towards the yield. Moreover, an increasing returns to scale in tapioca production was observed in the study area which implies that there is ample scope to increase the profit of farmers by proper adoption of technology and by optimal allocation of resources. Marketing plays a predominant role in agricultural development and is as important as production to any producer. Thus, an efficient marketing system can increase the level of income of producers and raise the satisfaction of cosumers. The most common marketing channel identified in the study area was channel I (Producer-village trader-wholesaler-retailer-consumer) with a marketing efficiency of 2.0, while channel IV (Producer-consumer) was found to be the most efficient channel (6.45) as there were no intermediaries. Major production constraints identified were high labour cost and labour shortage and the marketing constraints were low price and distress sale to traders. The future of tapioca lies in the promotion of diversified uses of tapioca, especially in the industrial sector so policy intervention to encourage potential entrepreneurs to start industries to produce diverse value added products from tapioca is needed to tackle these problems.