CHAPTER-I INTRODUCTION

Transcription

1 CHAPTER-I INTRODUCTION Agriculture is the backbone of Indian economy. It provides employment both directly and indirectly to around 65 per cent of the total work force in the country. It has been also the main source for the supply of raw materials to industries. There are number of sub sectors in agricultural sector such as sericulture, floriculture and horticulture. Among these fields horticulture has played a dominant role in the total agricultural output throughout India (Palanivel et al., 2015). India is fast emerging as a major producer of horticultural crops covering a wide gamut of fruits, vegetable, tuber crops, mushrooms, medicinal and aromatic plants, plantation crops, spices etc. This provides a remunerative means of diversification of land use besides improving productivity and returns. Horticulture crops also provide nutritional security, increased employment opportunities, as well as raw materials for growing needs of the agro-processing industries, and ultimately improving foreign exchange earnings through exports. Fruits and vegetable can earn 20 to 30 times more foreign exchange per unit area than that of cereals due to higher yields and higher prices available in international market. One very important trend observed in the last few years is that the horticultural development has gradually moved out of its rural confines in to urban areas and from traditional agricultural enterprises to the corporate sector. This trend has led to the adoption of improved technology, greater commercialization and professionalisms in the management of production and marketing. As a result today we witness a perceptible change in the concept of horticultural development in the country (Kuthe, 2012). The mango, Mangifera indica L., is one of the most important tropical and subtropical fruits of the world and is popular both in fresh and processed forms. It is called as the King of fruits on account of its nutritive value, taste, attractive fragrance and health promoting qualities. Mango has been cultivated in the Indian sub-continent over 4000 years ago. Presently, besides India, it is being cultivated all over world especially, in all South and South-East Asian countries, African countries,

2 tropical Australia, USA, Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, West Indies Islands and Cambodia (Yadav and Pandey, 2016). Kesar mango is a leading mango variety of Gujarat, with a red blush on the shoulders. The Gir Kesar Mango is the well-known mango variety in the state particularly in Junagadh and Kutch districts. A variety was named Kesar based on saffron colour of the fruit pulp. A basic description of Gir Kesar mango is given as under (Anon., 2011). Quality parameters Description Fruit Shape Oblong Fruit color Deep green during fruit development and turns to light apricot yellow with pink spot on shoulder during ripening stage Fruit weight (g) Skin thickness Medium (13% of fruit wt.) Beak Small Pulp colour Saffron color Pulp weight (g) (69% of total weight) Pulp flavor Saffron Fiber Fiber less Stone shape & weight Flat (18% of fruit wt) Peel (%) Juice consistency Semi solid Taste Sweet Fruit maturity April-May Keeping quality days Ascorbic acid (mg/100 g) Reducing sugar (%) 3.15 Total sugar (%) Non reducing sugar (%) TSS (degree of brix value) Yield(kg/tree)

3 1.1 Geographical Indication Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation (GAIC) Ltd proposed the geographical indication (GI) registration of Gir Kesar-mango. After the Junagadh Agricultural University filed the application in 2010, the fruit was granted the GI tag in 2011 by the Geographical Indication Registry in Chennai, making the name "Gir Kesar" exclusive to the mangoes grown in the region. It thus became the first agricultural product from Gujarat and the second mango variety in India (after Uttar Pradesh's Dasheri mango) to earn the GI tag (Anon., 2010). 1.2 Nutritional Value of Mango Mango is nutritious and an excellent source of carotene as compared to other fruits. A 100 gram of edible portion of the mango contains about 1,990 mcg (microgram) of beta-carotene (vitamin-a), which is much higher than other fruits. Eating mangoes in the season may provide a store of vitamin-a in the liver, sufficient to last for the rest of the year and highly beneficial for the prevention of vitamin-a deficient disorders, like night blindness. Mangoes, both ripe and unripe, are good source of vitamin-c. About 16 mg (milli-gram) of vitamin-c is present in 100 gram of mango. Ripe mango provides a good source of calories and supplies 74 kcal (kilo-calorie) per 100 gram of mango pulp (ICMR, 2009) Botanical description Mango trees grown from seeds are known as "seedlings" have a long straight bole. Tree has sympodially branched and grafted trees on the other hand are dwarf with spreading branches. The compactness of the canopy, branching pattern and leaf component also show eco-geographical dependence. While seedling trees live much more than 80 years whereas grafted ones live only 60 years or less. In case of diameter one of the largest trees known is that from Chandigarh (India), with a trunk of 3.5 m in diameter, limbs of 75 cm diameter (Naik and Rao, 1943) Climate The mango is adapted to both tropical and subtropical conditions. Temperature range is o C and rainfall of at least 600 mm/year are ideal for the crop. The crop is intolerant to saline conditions with dry period of at least 3 months is necessary for flowering. The tree requires plenty of sunshine for optimum growth and fruiting. 3

4 1.2.3 Planting Plant the grafts at the centre of the pits with ball of earth intact and keeping the graft union 15 cm above the ground level. While stake and water the plants immediately after planting dig pits of 1 m x 1 m x 1 m in size and fill in with top soil mixed with 10 kg of FYM and 1.3% dust per pit General uses of mango Every part of the mango tree from its root to its top parts could be used in a variety of ways. The fruit itself in the various stages of its development could be used in many different ways. In its raw stage, the fruit could be used for the extraction of tannin and other astringent products as well as for the preparation of delightful chutneys, curries and pickles. The ripe fruits could be eaten as fresh fruits could also be preserved and canned and the mango stones and the mango leaves could be given to livestock as cattle feed. Mango leaves could be used to decorate houses during festive occasions. Dried branches and twigs could be used as fuel wood, while the trunk of the tree has timber values and could be used for making items of furniture. A number of mango products could manufactured from the ripe mango fruits and canned mango slices in syrup, mango pulp, mango jam, mango squash, mango juice, mango nectar, mango cereals and flakes, mango custard powder, mango toffee, mango leather and mango juice powder. A large variety of mango products could be manufactured from the unripe mango and such as mango pickles, mango chutneys, Brined mango slices, dried green mango slices and mango powder and mango wine, various other products such as candy, jam, jelly, preserves, squash and the like could also prepared from the unripe mango (Naik and Rao, 1943). 1.3 World scenario Mangoes account for approximately half of all tropical fruits produced worldwide. The aggregate production of the top ten countries roughly equal to 80 per cent of worldwide production. India occupies top position among mango growing countries of the world and produces per cent of the total world mango production. World over, total area under mango was lakh hectares, and production was lakh tonnes, during The major mango producing countries in the world are India, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Pakistan, Maxico, Brazil, Bangladesh, Nigeria, Philipines, etc (FAOSTAT, 2010). 4

5 1.4 Indian scenario India has favourable climate and soils for growing large number of fruits crops. India is fortunate to have a wide range of fruits crops grown in different agroclimatic zones and has a proud of place in the production of fruits. In India, fruits are grown in lakh hectares area with an annual production of 8.86 crore tonnes in year (Anon., 2015 a ). Table 1.1: State wise area, production and productivity of mango during State Area (in 000 ha) Production (in 000 MT) Productivity (in MT/ha) Uttar Pradesh Jharkhand Karnataka Telangana Andra Pradesh Bihar West Bengal Gujarat Tamilnadu Kerala Maharastra Odisha Others Total Source: Indian Horticulture Database (Anon., 2015 a ) Important fruits grown in India are mango, banana, citrus, guava, apple, pineapple, grape, pomegranate and litchi. The most mango- growing states in the country are Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Gujarat and Maharastra. In India, mango covers lakh hectares area with a production of 1.85 crore tonnes, during year The area, production and productivity status of mango in different states is presented in Table

6 1.5 Gujarat scenario The important fruits grown in Gujarat are mango, banana, sapota, ber, coconut, pomegranate and datepalm. Gujarat shows considerable increase in area and production of fruit crops during the last two decades. In the year , the area and production of fruit crops was around 0.96 lakh hectares and lakh tonnes, respectively. The total area under different fruit crops in the state was around 3.92 lakh hectares and total fruit production was lakh tonnes during the year It increased by per cent in area and per cent in production in the year over (Anon., 2015 b ). Table 1.2: District wise area, production and productivity of mango in Gujarat during District Area (in 000 ha) Production (in 000 MT) Productivity (in MT/ha) Valsad Navsari Tapi Kutch Junagadh Surat Amreli Bhavnagar Vadodara Dang Total Source: Directorate of Horticulture, Gandhinagar, (Anon., 2015 b ) In Gujarat major mango producing districts are Valsad, Navsari, Junagadh, Kutch, Surat, Amreli and Bhavnagar. Mango varities in the state cover total area of 1.5 lakh heactares with total production of lakh tonnes during Districtwise area, production and productivity of mango is given in Table

7 1.6 Practical utility of the research problem The horticulture sector is labour intensive, so it provides more employment because of value addition potential. Now a days horticultural industry is fast emerging and the most remunerative sector. To encourage diversification of agriculture in Gujarat, it is necessary to enhance the productivity of fruits. This can be done by bringing efficiency in production and marketing processes. Mango is an important fruits grown in Gujarat state especially in Saurashtra region. Inspite of the overwhelming importance of Kesar-mango in the region, no systematic studies have been made in details in Saurashtra. This study therefore, attempts to fill this gap through an economic analysis of Kesar-mango crop. The present study investigates some of the vital and sensitive issues of the crop. The study makes critical examination of resource use efficiency, cost and return analysis, feasibility of investment, production and marketing constraints of Kesarmango cultivation in Saurashtra and is expected to contribute significantly towards the improvement of the Kesar-mango production and productivity. The findings of the study will be helpful to a greater extent to the farmerproducer in carefully planning investment in Kesar-mango orchards and executing production strategies to increase farm efficiency. The information on the cost of cultivation provides clue to the government for devising appropriate price policies such as procurement price etc. It will be useful for credit institutions in deciding scale of finance for crop loan and crop insurance. The results of study would suggest the means for minimizing the cost and increasing the net returns for producer and also provide guidance for the government in framing the various policies. The study will be highly useful to the policy makers to formulate comprehensive, holistic, dynamic and sustainable development policies by precisely identifying, prioritizing and addressing various farm specific input efficiencies of a particular region and to bring further productivity growth. Further, the study will provide valuable insights into various farm-specific factors that explain the efficiency gap across the farmers, which would be useful to government, policy makers, researchers and extension officers in developing need based and result oriented educational and training programmes and other developmental programmes for farmers. 7

8 1.7 Limitation of the study 1. Due to limited time and resource available with the investigator, the study would be confined only to Saurashtra region of Gujarat. 2. In the present study, farm specific information will be collected by directly interviewing the individual Kesar-mango farmers. It is to be noted that the data provided by respondents are based only on their recall memory, individual perception and expressed opinion, as they do not keep an actual accounting record. Keeping all these view in mind the present study entitled, An Economic Assessment of Kesar-Mango Plantation in South Saurashtra Agro-climatic Zone will be under taken with the following specific objectives: 1.8 Objectives 1. To study the investment pattern in Kesar-mango plantation in the South Saurashtra agro-climatic zone 2. To compute the cost, returns and profitability of Kesar-mango plantation on different size of farms 3. To estimate the resource productivity of Kesar-mango cultivation on different size of farms 4. To identify the constraints in production and marketing of Kesar mango and to suggest appropriate policy measures 1.9 Hypotheses The following hypotheses were formulated against the specific objectives. H 1 : The cultivation of Kesar-mango is not economically viable proposition. H 2 : In production of Kesar-mango, utilization of input is not optimum. H 3 : Cost of production per quintal is equal to all the categories of farmers. 8

9 1.10 Presentation of study The entire study is presented in five chapters. Chapter-I deals with the introduction, rationale of the problem, hypothesis, objectives and limitation of the study. Chapter-II represents the reviews of the studies made in the past that are relevant to the objectives of the present investigation. Chapter-III explains the methodology adopted in the study, sampling frame, nature and sources of data, tools and technique of analysis for evaluating the objectives etc. The terms and concepts used in study are also outlined. Chapter-IV presents the results and discussion of the study. The summary and policy implications are given in Chapter -V. 9