Economic analysis of cowpea seed production in Palakkad district
| dc.contributor.advisor | Chitra Parayil | |
| dc.contributor.author | Vechalapu Lakshmi, Sindhuja | |
| dc.contributor.author | KAU | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2021-04-15T11:08:49Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2021-04-15T11:08:49Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2020 | |
| dc.description | MSc | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] is one of the most essential food which is extensively adapted, stress tolerant grain legume, vegetable, and fodder crop. Kerala is striving to move towards self-sufficiency in vegetables and in this context, the timely availability of quality seed is gaining importance. Plant types are often categorized as trailing and semi trailing varieties. The varieties selected for the study were Vellayani Jyothika which is of trailing type, Anaswara, which is a semi-trailing variety (both for seed purpose) and Arka Mangala which is of trailing type was selected for comparison between seed and vegetable production. The two blocks selected for the study were Nenmara and Chittur because these blocks had maximum number of registered farmers. The registered farmers under VFPCK’s seed production of cowpea were selected for the study. From the list of registered farmers, farmers growing both vegetable and seed cowpea with at least 50 cents area were selected at random. Twenty farmers were selected from Nenmara block and 60 farmers were selected from Chittur block in proportion to the area of seed production undertaken by VFPCK in the respective blocks. The results of the study are as follows. The distribution of respondents based on age showed that majority of cowpea seed farmers fall under 50-60 years age group. It was observed that the farmers who had secondary school education fell in this category. Majority of the respondents were in the medium-sized family category (4-6 members). The findings support the fact that joint families are on a decline. It was observed that respondents had about 25-30 years’ experience in seed production of cowpea. The results showed that they were mostly small holding farmers (1-2 ha) who are involved in cow pea seed production. The growth rate of area and production for vegetables in Kerala were negative -0.26 per cent and -0.14 per cent respectively, while the growth rate for productivity was positive (0.85%) and was found to be significant. This indicates that there has been a significant increase in the productivity of vegetables in Kerala due to the introduction of HYVs during this period (1991-2018). It was found that the cost of cultivation for Anaswara (Rs.148386.8 ha -1 ), Vellayani Jyothika (Rs. 164065.4 ha -1 ) were high in Chittur and for Arka Mangala varieties (Rs.119991 ha -1 ) was high in Nenmara. The reason was a marginal increase in the wage rate in Chittur compared to Nenmara. Anaswara (Rs. 235015 ha-1) and Vellayani Jyothika (Rs. 383925 ha-1) yielded higher in Chittur compared to Nenmara. The B:C ratio for the varieties were Vellayani Jyothika (2.36) which is high in Chittur, followed by Anaswara (1.58), it was high in Nenmara and for Arka Mangala it was 1.60, which were same in both the blocks. The findings indicate that Vellayani Jyothika variety had high procurement price of seed, high returns and higher B:C ratio. The returns to scale was also greater than one i.e. 1.29, indicating increasing returns to scale in cowpea. Cobb-Douglas production function was fitted to estimate the resource use efficiency in Cowpea and it was found that quantity of labour contributed significantly towards the increase in the yield. Marginal productivity analysis was carried out and it was found that the k ratio (MVP/MFC) for the resources, quantity of labour and quantity of manures and fertilizers were found to be greater than one. This indicated sub-optimal utilization of these resources. The k-value for rouging (man days/ha) and quantity of plant protection chemicals were found to be less than one, which indicates excess utilization of the above resources. The results of linear regression to understand the factors affecting availability of seed to vegetable farmers in general are pests and diseases attack and costs of production of different cowpea varieties. High cost of input seed and limited returns from vegetable cowpea are the major constraints faced by the cowpea farmers. Since the procurement prices of seeds have been recently revised, it can be concluded that seed production in cowpea is highly remunerative, given the increasing demand for quality seeds in vegetables. Thus cowpea seed production can be seen as a profitable venture in order to proceed towards the path to self-sufficiency in vegetables in our state. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | 174969 | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810163506 | |
| dc.keywords | Agricultural Economics | en_US |
| dc.language.iso | English | en_US |
| dc.pages | 79p. | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Department of Agricultural Economics, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara | en_US |
| dc.sub | Agricultural Economics | en_US |
| dc.theme | Cowpea seed production in Palakkad district | en_US |
| dc.these.type | M.Sc | en_US |
| dc.title | Economic analysis of cowpea seed production in Palakkad district | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |