Production problems faced by betel leaf farmers’ in karur district

Agriculture, which is considered the backbone of the Indian economy, has taken a back seat due to the apathy of government policies in the last two decades. The percentage of cultivable land has come down. Meanwhile, nearly 70 percent of the population depending upon agriculture for their daily livelihood directly or indirectly is currently undergoing a transformation. The economic development of a country depends on the development of the core industry in which the majority of its people have been engaged for quite a long time. Indian economy has been largely based on agriculture from time immemorial. Multi-stage stratified random sampling has been adopted for the present study with Karur District as the universe, the taluk as the stratum, the village as the primary unit of sampling and the betel leaf farmers as the ultimate unit. Primary data required for the study were collected from the 300 selected respondents of Karur district in order to analyze the technical efficiency of the farmers. Suggested this study, the Government can pay attention by providing transport facilities, maintaining good roads and providing subsidiaries for suckers and fertilizers, so that the small and medium farmers may be benefited. Agriculture, which is considered the backbone of the Indian economy, has taken a back seat due to the apathy of government policies in the last two decades. The percentage of cultivable land has come down. Meanwhile, nearly 70 percent of the population depending upon agriculture for their daily livelihood directly or indirectly is currently undergoing a transformation. With dwindling surpluses from agricultural activities, most of the labourers have now shifted to service sector activities like real estate, working as construction workers, and others (especially the second generation from farming families) who are semiskilled have found solace in the periphery, working for courier companies and the like. Thus, semi and unskilled workers are forced to take up work in manufacturing (mostly contractual in nature) and service sectors – where wages are minimal and hardly any social security is provided by the company. Yet approximately some 20 percent of the villagers now depend solely upon agricultural income for their livelihood directly. Farmers‟ welfare directly depends upon the income generated from agricultural produce. This income would be high or low depending upon the nature of the price discovered in the market for the produce. The farmers often do not participate in determining the price and instead the middlemen and agents. Globalisation is a process in which the entire nation is expected to benefit, including the small farmers as stakeholders. But in India, we see a different picture. Globalisation has left the small farming community (and in the case of certain crops, the government) do it. These third parties make profit out of the loss imposed upon poor 47 Journal of Management and Science ISSN: 2249-1260 | e-ISSN: 2250-1819 | Vol.5. No.4 | December’2015 farmers by manipulating the demand-supply conditions. When this threatens the daily livelihoods of the villagers, they search for better sources of income outside agriculture. This leads to sale of land, which ultimately drives the agricultural labour-force out of employment. The other side of the story is that due to the low prices received for their produce, farmers are sometimes compelled to give very low wages to the labourers, which is far less than what they might receive in comparison to the manufacturing sector. This forces the labourers to migrate out of agriculture. This indeed is not bad for an economy, which is in the second stage of reforms and globalisation. Reforms would be meaningful in the macro context, only if they provide greater employment opportunities with better wages and working environment. It is an irony that it is not so in the agricultural sector in a nation, which calls “ Mathama Gandhi” the father of the nation, who always stressed upon “self sufficient villages” as the building blocks for making India a strong nation. Today we have a situation where large-scale migration of productive labour force (in the age group of 16 to 58) from villages to metros is creating unmanageable shanty townships. This has come about due to a combination of misplaced trade and other policies. Fruits and agricultural landless labourers behind to languish in penury. In the era of corporate farming many large farmers have joined hands with big companies to do their business. REVIEW OF LITERATURE Raju and Senguttuvan (2003) found that the most destructive pest pseudostem weevil is widely distributed in all banana growing areas. The reason for the spread of this pest is the selection of the suckers from the pest affected places and non-removal of the leaves, trashes and suckers after the harvest of the crop. Praveena and Selvalakshmi, (2004) observed that investment in fertilizers can be reduced by the application of biofertilizers. Biofertilizers do not pollute the soils and ground water with residues. It promotes and enhances the health of the agro ecosystem including biodiversity, biological cycle and biological soil activities. The National Commission on Agriculture defined agricultural marketing as the process which starts with a decision to produce saleable farm commodities and it involves all aspects of market structure or system both functional, institutional based on technology and academic consideration including pre and post harvest operations, grading, storage, transportation and distribution. B. Bhushan defines agricultural marketing as performance of activities that direct the movement of agricultural commodities services from the farm-gate to customer. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM The economic development of a country depends on the development of the core industry in which the majority of its people have been engaged for quite a long time. Indian economy has been largely based on agriculture from time immemorial. The economic aspects of the crop as discussed above evidently prove that betel leaf is one of the most promoising commercial crops capable of attracting substantial amount of foreign exhange to the country. Betel leaf, being highly perishable commodity, is to be marketed within a short span of time. Therefore, systematic package practices in betel leaf production will greatly improve productivity and 48 Journal of Management and Science ISSN: 2249-1260 | e-ISSN: 2250-1819 | Vol.5. No.4 | December’2015 enable the farmers to reach the maximum benefits. Similarly a well organized marketing system for betel leaf will give a suitable reward to people actually participating in the system. IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY The leaves are very nutritive and contain substantial amount of vitamins and mineralsand therefore, six leaves with a little bit of slaked lime is said to be comparable to about 300ml of cow milk particularly for the vitamin and mineral nutrition. The leaves also contains the enzymes like diastase and catalase besides a significant amountof all the essential amino acides except lysine, histidine and arginine, which are found only traces. This study will help to formulate a suitable frame work to analyse the various elements of production and marketing of betel leaf. Such a study will ensure proper resource combinations to improve betel leaf production and thereby increasing the profit. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY 1. To study the problems faced by betel leaf farmers 2. To offer suggestions to improve the production and marketing of betel leaf AREA OF THE STUDY Agriculture is a predominant occupation in Karur District and it occupies an important place in the District economy. Most of the labour force is engaged in agriculture and its allied activities. Karur district was selected for the present study since the betel leaf cultivation occupied important place in agriculture in this district. HYPOTHESES The following hypotheses have been framed in the light of the above objectives. Ho: There is no significant difference between mean ranks for respondent‟s problems towards production of betelleaf. H1 :There is no significant difference between mean ranks for respondent‟s problems towards production of betelleaf. METHODOLOGY The study is a combination of both descriptive and analytical. The present study is empirical and hence field survey method and personal interview technique were adopted. Multi-stage stratified random sampling has been adopted for the present study with Karur District as the universe, the taluk as the stratum, the village as the primary unit of sampling and the betel leaf farmers as the ultimate unit.Primary data required for the study were collected from the 300 selected respondents of Karur district in order to analyze the technical efficiency of the farmers.The field survey was carried out during the period from April 2015 to December 2015 to collect the primary data. Primary data collected from intervew schedule. The following descriptive statistics Percentages, mean and standard deviation, Friedmen rank test. 49 Journal of Management and Science ISSN: 2249-1260 | e-ISSN: 2250-1819 | Vol.5. No.4 | December’2015 PROBLEM FACED BY PRODUCTION OF BETEL LEAF CULTIVATION TABLE NO.1