Managerial efficiency of cassava farmers

Abstract

The study aimed at analyzing the managerial efficiency of cassava farmers. It was conducted in four districts namely, Thiruvananthapuram (low productivity), and Pathanamthitta (high productivity) in Kerala State and Kanyakumari (low productivity) and Selem (high productivity) in Tamil Nadu state. The first three districts were considered as non- industrial district and Selem district was considered as industrial district also. A total of 240 cassava farmers were selected, 60 from each district following stratified random sampling. The managerial efficiency was measured with the help of a scale consisting of 30 items developed for the study. The data on the managerial efficiency of farmers and on the fifteen socio- psychological and situational factors of the farmers were collected using an interview schedule. The components of managerial efficiency identified empirically were ‘planning’, ‘labour management’, ‘information management’, ‘financial management’ ‘production management (variety)’, ‘production management (practices)’ and ‘marketing management’. The managerial efficiency of cassava farmers as the whole was somewhat better as little more than half of the farmers had high managerial efficiency. While the farmers exhibited high efficiency in the managerial components namely, ‘planning’, ‘labour management’, ‘financial management’ and marketing management’, they were not efficient in the components of ‘Information management’, ‘production management (variety)’ and ‘production management (practices)’. The farmers of industrial district were found to have significantly higher efficiency in the overall managerial efficiency as well as in the managerial components viz., ‘planning’, ‘information management’, ‘financial management’, ‘production management (variety)’, and ‘production management (practices)’ when compared to farmers of non- industrial district. The component- wise performance of farmers on the whole was in the order of ‘labour management’, ‘marketing management’, ‘planning’, ‘financial management’, ‘production management (practices)’, ‘information management’, and ‘production management (variety)’. While farmers of industrial district relatively performed well in ‘production management (variety)’, ‘production management (practices)’ and ‘planning’ when compared to other components, non-industrial district farmers performance was good at ‘labour management’, ‘marketing management’ and ‘financial management’. The managerial components namely, ‘planning’, ‘information management’ and ‘financial management’ were found to be relatively more important than other components with regard to their contribution towards the profit from cassava cultivation. The socio-psychological and situational factors namely, closeness with agricultural support system, market perception, achievement motivation, economic motivation, attitude towards scientific management in crop enterprise, knowledge on scientific management in crop enterprise, cultivated holding, cassava area and irrigation potential were found to be significantly contributing to the managerial efficiency. The major managerial constraints faced by the farmers were lack of awareness, knowledge, conviction, timely information and planting materials; limited resources, uncertainty and shortage of labourers.