Vol. 12, Issue 3 (2023)

Author(s):
Laxmi Rani Dubeya, Kachhva Paresh H, Mahin Sharif and Umang B Pate

Abstract:
Castor plant is a tropical plant that belongs to the Euphorbiaceae family and is grown for its non-edible oilseed. This plant has purple color stalks and large blue-green colors leaves of palmate shape. The oil obtained from the seeds of this plant is very usefull raw material in many industries like soap, surface coatings, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, perfumes, greases and lubricants etc. The present study has been undertaken in Banaskantha district as having large areas and production under hybrid castor seed in North Gujarat. With the help of multistage random sampling four talukas viz., Deesa, Dhanera, Tharad and Palanpur were selected purposively having highest area under hybrid castor cultivation in the district. Five villages from each selected talukas were selected randomly. Further from each selected village, six hybrid castor seed growers were randomly selected comprising of 120 respondents. The study was mainly based on primary data, which were collected through personal interview with the help of structured schedule. Tabular, percentage analysis and Garrett ranking technique were used for data analysis purposes. The results showed that majority of hybrid castor seed growers purchased seed from dealers at the time of sowing according to dealers and fellow farmer’s suggestion. Scarcity of particular company seed observed as a major constraint for hybrid castor growers. Majority of hybrid castor growers were expected more field demonstrations from seed companies. It was suggested that the seed companies should give more emphasis on farmer meeting, field demonstration and experts visit as a promotional activity and the companies should also ensure to provide quality seed of particular brand on time and in sufficient quantity at a reasonable price. Seed companies should also provide some promotional schemes against the case payment sales to reduce the problem of credit sales.