BHAVANI DEVI, ISAI INDRANI REDDY, G2020-02-072020-02-072019http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810142712D5809The study was conducted to understand the processing scenario in the study area, potential crops suitable for value addition other than tomato and suitability of these products in the farmer owned tomato processing plant. The study was conducted in Chittoor district, Andhra Pradesh. The sample constituted 60 farmers and 3 processing units. About 68.3 per cent of respondents were middle aged while old aged were 5 per cent and the rest 6.7 per cent were young aged. The entire respondents were literates and half of them completed their higher education and intermediate, 31.7 per cent completed graduation and the other 18.3 per cent had only primary education. About 55 per cent had only agriculture as their core occupation, whereas 26.7 per cent reared cattle, 10 per cent had jobs and 8.3 percent were running their own businesses. Major proportion of the farmers came under small and marginal categories with 45 and 33.3 per cent respectively, while medium and large farmers occupied 16.7 and 5 per cent correspondingly. In the area under horticultural crops, mango occupied major share of 46.94 percent of area. Tomato was next to follow with an area of 15.98 per cent. Papaya was grown in 2.33 per cent of the entire area and banana occupied 1.5 per cent. There were several marketing channels through which the end produce was marketed. Out of the whole sample, 30 per cent sales were through mandi, 3.3 per cent sales were through processing units, farm gate sales were 40 per cent, 20 per cent through both mandi and processing units and 6.7 percent marketed through both mandi and farm gate sales. The perception of farmers towards food processing indicated that 20 per cent of total sample was unaware of the processing, 8.3 per cent expressed that the system was good, 23.3 per cent had low price realization, 10 per cent felt the need for good procurement practices and the remaining 20 per cent had no bulk production which was adequate to supply to the processing units. On creation of necessary infrastructural facilities, 70 per cent were willing to supply to processing units, while 30 per cent were unwilling. In mango, the cost of cultivation was Rs.51750/ha, while it was Rs.90625/ha in banana and was highest for papaya with Rs.306875/ha. Per hectare gross income for these fruit crop enterprises was Rs.80875, Rs.198750 and Rs.643750 respectively. The per hectare net income over working costs was of the order of Rs.29125, Rs.108125 and Rs.336875 for the above three crop enterprises. The returns for rupee of expenditure over working costs were Rs.1.53 for mango, Rs.2.19 for banana and Rs.2.10 for papaya. The results from the chi-square test showed that there was a significant relationship between locality of the farmers, age, education and land holding with the type of marketing channel used; location of the farmers with the satisfaction level with the price; location, age and land holding of farmers with the perception towards the processing sector; location and the land holding with the willingness to supply and satisfaction of price with the selection of marketing channels. In the economics of processing, for the given unit which dealt with mango, papaya, tomato, banana, guava, pineapple, and chillies, the revenue obtained from mango is likely to Rs.50 crore, where total working costs would be Rs.39.96 crore with a fixed cost of Rs.8.04 crore and net income of Rs.2 crore. In papaya processing, Rs 2 crore of gross income can be obtained with total costs of Rs.1.896 crore deriving a net return of about Rs.0.104 crore. Pineapple processing would bring a gross income of Rs.1 crore with total costs of Rs.0.9399 crore with a net profit of Rs.0.0601 crore. In respect of guava, gross revenue of Rs.1 crore is going to be attained. The total costs that would be Rs.0.9546 crore helping the entrepreneur to gain a net income of Rs.0.0454 crore. Banana processing brought an income of Rs.0.4 crore. Total costs would be Rs.0.378 crore and the net income is expected to be Rs.0.0278 crore. The gross revenue derived from tomato products will be Rs. 6 crore while total working capital and total fixed costs will be of the order of Rs.4.793 crore and Rs.0.913 crore respectively with a net return of Rs.0.294 crore. In red chilli, sale proceeds would be Rs. 3 crore with a total cost of Rs.2.8686 crore and the net returns would be Rs.0.1313 crore, whereas in green chilli paste production, gross income and net income would be Rs.0.3 crore and Rs.0.017 crore respectively.en-USnullThesis