Economic analysis of production and marketing of finger millet and little millet in dharmapuri district of tamilnadu
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Date
2017-05-31
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Vasantrao Naik Marathwada Krishi Vidyapeeth, Parbhani
Abstract
Millet is a cereal crop plant belonging to the grass family, Poaceae. The
most important millets are pearl millet, finger millet, proso millet, foxtail millet
and little millet. It is the staple food of the millions inhabiting the arid and semiarid
tropics of the world. It contains low phytic acid and rich in dietary fiber, iron,
calcium, and B vitamins. India ranks top in the production of millets. Tamil Nadu
ranks first in productivity of finger millets. Dharmapuri is one of the leading
districts in the production of minor millets and finger millet is the second most
staple food in the region.
Multistage sampling method was adopted for selection of district, taluk,
villages and respondents. Dharmapuri district was purposely selected on the basis
of area. Two taluk was selected based on highest area under minor millet
cultivation. Three villages from each taluk were selected purposively on the basis
of area. Finally five finger millet growers and five little millet growers from each
villages were selected randomly. Thus the total sample contains 30 finger millet
growers and 30 little millet growers.
More than 90 • p~r cent of the minor millet growers were married male with
age of 45-50 and the farming experience of nearly 40 years. They were middle
school level educated and more than 50 per cent of fanners were engaged in other
occupation apart from fanning. Their annual family income was between ~ 140000
and ~ 170000 with a family size of 4-5 members and nearly half of them were
involved in farming activities. The average number of livestock and poultry
maintained was 11-12. The average size of land holding was between 1.5 and 2.5
ha, and more than 50 per cent of this was irrigated land. The gross cropped area
was between 1.76 and 2.95 ha. The net sown area was found between 1.5 and 2.3
ha, respectively with cropping intensity of 115.79 to 129.39 per cent. The per
hectare cost of cultivation viz., Cost C was ~53644.40 and ~32478.47 and per
quintal cost of production was ~ 1481.61 and ~2597 .80 for finger millet and little
millet cultivation, respectively. The total gross returns obtained from finger millet
and little millet cultivation was ~67660 /ha and ~35696.60 /ha , respectively. And
the net profit for finger millet and little millet cultivation was ~ 14016.10 and
~3218.13 , respectively. The benefit-cost ratio obtained was 1.26 and 1.1 0,
respectively for finger millet and little mil let cultivation.
There were six marketing channels for finger millet (i.e., I. ProducerWholesaler-
Processor, II. Producer-Trader-Wholesaler-Processor, III. ProducerConsumer,
IV. Producer-Wholesaler-Consumer, V. Producer-Trader-Consumer,
VI. Producer-Trader-Wholesaler-Cosumer) and two marketing channel for little
millet (i.e., I. Producer-Wholesaler-Processor, II. Producer-Trader-WholesalerProcessor).
The Channel III of finger mille.t was most efficient which have less
price spread (1.41% of net price paid by consumer) and Producers' share in
consumer price was 98.59 per cent. The Channel I of little millet has less price
spread ( 13.15 % of price paid by processor) and producers' share in processor
price was 86.85 per cent. Frequent drought, unavailability of labour, lack of
threshing floor and processing facilities and cost of transportation were the major
constraints noted by millet growers. Their important suggestions were timely
delivery of indemnity during the drought year; the hundred day's employment
should not coincide with cropping season, construction of threshing floor,
inclusion of millets in PDS, ICDS & mid-day meal programmes and creation of
infrastructure for threshing and processing.
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