“IMPACT OF ‘RASI MITRA PROGRAMMME’ ON COTTON GROWERS IN JUNAGADH DISTRICT” 2958
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Date
2019-08
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Publisher
JUA, JUNAGADH
Abstract
The cotton is main commercial crop in the world as well as in the India. It is
nearly grown in the 80 countries of the world on the large scale of area including
India. Therefore, to full fill these large area requirement presently more than 400
private companies produces cotton seed and there is high competition between them
to stay in the market permanently, every company is using their marketing skill and
tricks to improve their market share. So ‘Rasi Mitra Programme’ is the one them,
which launched by Rasi Seeds (P) Ltd. in the year 2015 to create trust among the
farmers by providing them technical guidance and to promote new variety and to
retain their customers permanently. The present study was carried out to assess the
impact of ‘Rasi Mitra Programme’ on cotton growers in the Junagadh district, in
terms of knowledge level, economic analysis, resource use efficiency and
expectations.
For this study, using purposive sampling technique three talukas viz.,
Junagadh, Vanthali and Manavadar were selected from the Junagadh because the
company had high sell in these three talukas. The 50 Rasi Mitra and 50 Non Rasi
Mitra cotton growers were selected randomly from the villages where the more
number of Rasi Mitra were present. The primary data collected by using the prepared
questionnaire and secondary data was collected from the internet and from annual
report. The simple tabular analysis, knowledge index, costs concepts, t-test analysis,
factor analysis and Cobb- Douglas production function were employed to draw the
result of the selected objectives.
The socio economic profile of Rasi mitra and Non Rasi Mitra revealed that
majority of them belonged to the middle age group, having medium land holding and
have up to higher secondary level of education. The result of knowledge index
indicated that majority of cotton growers had medium level of knowledge i.e. for the
Rasi Mitra (66%) and Non Rasi Mitra (60%) cotton growers, as compared to the Non
Rasi Mitra cotton growers, Rasi Mitra had more knowledge about the package of
practices. The Gross income of Rasi Mitra (Rs.178333.14/ha) found comparatively
high than the Non Rasi Mitra (Rs.141912.20/ha) cotton growers in the Junagadh
district. In case of Cost C2 it’s found that there is not much difference between Rasi
Mitra and Non Rasi Mitra i.e. Rs. 123842.01 and Rs. 122365.71/ha respectively. The benefit cost ratio found higher in the Rasi Mitra cotton growers as compared to the
Non Rasi Mitra cotton growers i.e. 1:1.30 and 1:1.08. The net returns found
comparatively high in the Rasi Mitra (Rs.54491.13/ha) than Non Rasi Mitra
(Rs.19546.48/ha) cotton growers. The result of t-test revealed that there is difference
in the age, land holdings, information usage, extension contact, gross income, net
return, expense on input, awareness of new variety of Rasi Seeds at 1 per cent and 5
per cent level of significance. Whereas the education, motivation of achievement,
media level found non-significant indicated no significant difference between Rasi
Mitra and Non Rasi Mitra farmers. The results of the production function showed that
the coefficient of labour and fertilizers found positive, among them labour found
significant at one percent level of significance, which indicated the underutilization
and suggesting increase the use to gain in gross income. The coefficient of irrigation
found negative, indicating the over utilization for the both groups. There its cost need
to be reduce to increase the gross returns. The return to scale found decreasing to the
scale for the Rasi Mitra farmers whereas it was increasing return to the scale for the
Non Rasi Mitra farmers. Which implied optimum use of resources by Rasi Mitra and
under-utilization by the Non Rasi Mitra. The result of factor analysis revealed that
qualitative characters of the seed, high germination capacity, previous experience and
reference of company executive and farmers, height of the plant, resource usage and
quality of produce considered more while repurchasing of the cotton seed. The trained
marketing person, appropriate packing, farmers meeting, farmers training to handle
new technology, need to create the social media group, low price of seed etc. were top
expectations of the majority of Rasi Mitra. Whereas the low price of the seed, farmers
meeting, trained marketing person, appropriate packaging, high yielding variety,
farmers training, to form the group on social media etc. were top expectations of the
majority of Non Rasi Mitra farmers in the study area.
The branches breaking and sucking pest problem found the major problem
by the cotton growers in the Junagadh district regarding the varieties of Rasi Seeds
Company. The majority of famers suggested that there is need to develop the new
variety to tackle the problems of branches breaking, drought and sucking pest.
The overall study concluded that the ‘Rasi Mitra Programme’ has conducive
impact among the cotton growers and it has successfully sown the trust among the
cotton growers in the Junagadh district.