Vol. 11, Issue 12 (2022)

Author(s):
Hanumantappa Jamanal and Dr. C Murthy

Abstract:
The arecanut palm (Areca catechu L.,) is a significant commercial and business crop of India. It plays an important role in the political, social and cultural functions and the economic life of people in our country. The area under arecanut is around 12.26 Lakh hectares with a production of around 17.96 lakh tons in India. Karnataka and Kerala together account for 70-80 percent of area and production of arecanut. In Karnataka, around 2.15 lakh hectares are under arecanut cultivation. At the first stage, the random sampling method was used to select of arecanut growers. Six villages were chosen from each major producing talukas and four farmers from each village were chosen for the study, thus a total of 192 arecanut farmers were selected. Five traders, five wholesalers, five pre harvest contractors and five retailers were chosen from each of the district's and two major talukas. One arecanut processing unit was selected in from each selected district. Thus, the total sample size was 360. The growth in area, production and productivity of arecanut over a period of time revealed large fluctuation because of deficiency and improper distribution of rainfall in the study area. The cost of cultivation of arecanut, the variable cost accounted 80.75 percent of the total cost in which the wages for human labour formed the maximum share of 31.99 percent. The processing cost of arecanut was observed quit high per quintal which was much higher than procurement. Lack of labour and high cost of labour was the major problem in arecanut cultivation. Hence, increase in mechanization may help to perform the operation including harvesting.