Vol. 12, Issue 4 (2023)

Author(s):
Soniya Ningombam, NG Joykumar Singh and Vikash Singh

Abstract:
In India, agriculture and other allied activities contribute significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), accounting for nearly 16% of the total GDP. Pineapple is one of the important fruit produced by farmers in the hilly area. The present study is an attempt to find out the socio-economic conditions of the pineapple farmers in the Imphal east district of Manipur. The data for the study was collected from a sample of 120 pineapple growers. It was found that the size of the farm groups in numbers for marginal, small and medium was 54, 43 and 23 respectively whereas the sample average percentage of males and females for different sizes of farm groups was 56.87% and 43.14%. The average size of the cultivated holdings per hectare for marginal-size farms was 0.84 ha followed by 1.78 ha for small-size farms and 2.57 ha for medium size farm groups respectively which constituted a sample average of 1.50 ha. Pineapple occupied a major area of 0.45 ha by marginal farms followed by 1.25 ha for small-size farms and 1.78 ha for medium size farm groups respectively. It was found that the maximum number of farmers is a backward and scheduled group, and their socio and economic status are still worse. On account of small land holdings and the inability to apply modern technology and inputs in pineapple cultivation, the marginal farmers of pineapple cultivation cannot earn much amount of profit when compared to the medium farmers.