PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF POMEGRANATE CULTIVATION AS PERCEIVED BY FARMERS OF BANASKANTHA DISTRICT
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Date
2020-11-14
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SARDARKRUSHINAGAR DANTIWADA AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY - SARDARKRUSHINAGAR
Abstract
India is one of the largest producers of pomegranate in the world. Maharashtra is the leading state in India other important states are Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. The area under pomegranate cultivation is increasing rapidly in Guajrat and especially in Banaskantha district. It was 210 ha in 2005-06 which was increased to 10951 ha in 2018-19. The farmers are getting more income than any other field crops. Therefore, they are getting prospectus in pomegranate cultivation. However, they are facing several problems. At present pomegranate cultivation in the district is at cross road. Hence, there was a genuine need for systematic analysis of the problems in pomegranate cultivation more over pomegranate is a remunerative food crop in the district and has many prospectus. Therefore, it was felt very essential to know the problems in pomegranate cultivation and their perception regarding prosectus of pomegranate cultivation. Keeping this in view the study entitled “PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF POMEGRANATE CULTIVATION AS PERCEIVED BY FARMERS OF BANASKANTHA DISTRICT” was therefore planned with following specific objectives. Objectives of the study : [1] To study personal, socio-economic, psychological, communicational and situational characteristics of pomegranate growers [2] To find out the technological gap in adoption of pomegranate cultivation practices by the pomegranate growers [3] To recognize the problems experienced by the pomegranate growers in pomegranate cultivation [4] To study the prospects of pomegranate cultivation as perceived by the farmers [5] To seek suggestions from the pomegranate growers to overcome the problems experienced by them in pomegranate cultivation
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Methodology : The present study was conducted in Banaskantha district of Gujarat state. Lakhani, Tharad and Dhanera talukas were selected purposively as these talukas had more area under pomegranate cultivation. A list of villages under pomegranate cultivation was prepared with number of farmers cultivating farmers. The six villages having more number of farmers were selected purposively. Ten farmers from each selected villages were selected randomly, thus from 18 villages a sample of 180 farmers was drawn for the study. The selected personal, economic, communication and psychological characteristics were studied either with the help of various scales and indices developed by past researcher or by structured schedule. The dependent variables undertaken were technological gap in adoption of recommended pomegranate cultivation practices and problems and prospects of pomegranate cultivation as perceived by pomegranate growers, which were measured by using a pretested developed structured schedule. An interview schedule was developed according to objectives of study and data were collected by arranging personal interview with 180 pomegranate growers of Banaskantha district. The collected data were classified, tabulated in order to make the findings meaningful. A simple ranking technique was applied to measure constraints and suggestions. Major findings : [1] Nearly half of the pomegranate growers belonged to middle age group and were having primary school to middle school level education. Almost all the pomegranate growers had small to medium size of land holding and majority of pomegranate growers had medium orchard size. More than half of the respondents had membership in more than one organization. More than three fourth of the pomegranate growers had annual income above ` 2,00,000/-. Half of the respondents had medium level of risk preference and more than half of them medium level of economic motivation. Nearly two third of the pomegranate growers had favourable attitude towards pomegranate cultivation. With regard to different sources of information, in informal sources progressive farmers were the main source of information. Whereas, in formal sources Krishi Vigyan Kendra was main source of information and in mass media, krushi mahotsav/krushi mela/exhibition was the major sources of information by the respondents for the cultivation of pomegranate. More than half of the respondents had medium level of extension participation and cosmopoliteness. Majority of the respondents were having medium marketing distance. More than half of the respondents using channel-I (producer-commission agent) for marketing of the pomegranate. [2] Majority of pomegranate growers were having medium level technological gap in processing and value addition, integrated disease management, harvesting, sorting, grading, packaging, storage and integrated pest management practices.
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[3] The major problems faced by pomegranate growers in pomegranate cultivation were fruit spot, fruit rot, wilt, thrips, anar butterfly, high cost of planting material and fertilizer, poor quality water, lack of cold storage chains, problem of market middle man and lack of adequate information about international market. [4] The major prospects regarding the pomegranate cultivation as perceived by the pomegranate growers were high quality tissue culture plants will be available, processing of pomegranate will be started and increase in area of pomegranate cultivation and increase in production of pomegranate. [5] Social participation and distance from market had positive and highly significant relationship with overall technological gap. The independent variables viz., age, area under pomegranate, annual income, risk preference, economic motivation, attitude, source of information, extension participation and cosmopoliteness had negative and highly significant relationship with overall technological gap. [6] The independent variables viz., age, education, annual income, economic motivation, attitude, extension participation and cosmopoliteness had negative and highly significant relationship with problems experienced by pomegranate growers in pomegranate practices. While social participation and distance from market had positive and highly significant relationship with problems experienced by them. [7] Multiple regression analysis indicated that all variables exerted as much as 79.70 per cent of total variation in overall technological gap in adoption of pomegranate cultivation practices. The results of step-wise regression analysis indicated that the total variation in intensity of problems in pomegranate cultivation practices were accounted by a set of twelve variables viz., education, size of land holding, area under pomegranate, social participation, annual income, risk preference, source of information, extension participation, cosmopoliteness, distance from market, marketing channel and attitude. [8] The results of step-wise regression analysis indicated that 89.20 per cent of the total variation in technological gap in pomegranate cultivation practices was accounted by a set of twelve variables viz., marketing channel, risk preference, extension participation, cosmopoliteness, education, attitude, annual income, area under pomegranate, distance from market, source of information, social participation and size of land holding. [9] The major suggestions expressed by pomegranate growers to overcome the constraints faced by the pomegranate growers in adoption of pomegranate production technology were the export of fruits through co-operatives sector should be promoted, provide training for value addition, the co-operative organizations should be established for marketing of pomegranate and rural youth should be trained for bahar treatment.