R P Economics of production of ginger in Uttara Kannada ... cultivation. Ginger crop requires more FYM, fertilizers and insecticides. The average yields obtained in case of small,

See end of the paper for

authors’ affiliations

Correspondence to :

C. MURTHY,

Department of Agribusiness

Management, University of

Agricultural Sciences,

Dharwad (KARNATAKA)

INDIA

Email: cmurthy1966@

gmail.com

Economics of production of ginger in Uttara Kannada district

of Karnataka

BHARATI S. BHAT, C. MURTHY AND MOHAMMED YUSUF

ABSTRACT : Uttara Kannada district is considered as the spice bowl of Karnataka. In this context the present

study were conducted to analyze the cost and returns in production of ginger and to identify the production

problem of ginger. Primary data for the study was obtained from the sample farmers through personal interview

method with the pre-tested questionnaire. To evaluate the objectives of the study, data were analysed using

simple tabular analysis with averages and percentages. The cost of cultivation was higher in case of small

(Rs.89435.17) farmers compared to medium (Rs.87203.30) and large (Rs.87015.34) farmers. However, there

were no substantial differences in the cost of cultivation between small, medium and large farmers. High incidence

of pest and disease was the major production problem expressed by most of the respondents. High yielding

rhizome materials were used in cultivation, the cost was very high. Supply of plant material at subsidized rates

would reduce the cost of cultivation.

KEY WORDS : Production of ginger, Labour utilization, Costs and returns

HOW TO CITE THIS PAPER : Bhat, Bharati S., Murthi, C. and Yusuf, Mohammed (2012). Economics of

production of ginger in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, Internat. Res. J. agric. Eco. & Stat., 3 (1) : 181-185.

Paper History :

Received : 12.01.2012;

Accepted: 28.02.2012

HIND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTE

Research Paper

INTRODUCTION

India is rightly called as “spice bowl of the world” for the

production of variety and superior quality of spices. The spices

are grown throughout the country from tropical to temperate

climate. India has highest number of spice varieties in the world.

For over 5,000 years ginger has been recognized as the

“universal medicine” by the ancient oriental of China and India.

Today ginger remains a component of more than 50 per cent of

the traditional herbal remedies and has been used to treat

nausea, indigestion, fever and infection and to promote vitality

and longevity. Though grown all over India, the finest quality

ginger comes from Kerala endowed as it is with a congenial

climate and a rich earthy soil. In India, major ginger growing

states are Kerala, Karnataka, Orissa, Meghalaya, West Bengal,

Sikkim and Mizoram.

Uttara Kannada district is considered as the spice bowl

of Karnataka. The hot humid climate with heavy rainfall and

slopy land in the mountain ranges of Malnad region possess

to be the most suited land for successful growing of spices.

The present study was undertaken in Uttar Kannada district

with the following specific objectives:

– To analyze the cost and returns in production of ginger in

study area.

– To identify the production problems of ginger and to

suggest appropriate policy guidelines.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The study was based on both primary and secondary

data. Primary data were collected through personal interview

method from farmers, with the help of well-structured and pre-

tested questionnaire exclusively designed for the study. The

sampling technique followed was both purposive and random.

From among the eleven taluks of Uttara Kannada district, top

three Taluks, Sirsi, Siddapur and Mundgod were selected based

on the highest area under ginger crop. These three Taluks put

together cover nearly 70 to 80 per cent of the production in

Uttara Kannada district.

Five villages were selected randomly from each one of

the selected Taluks, from each village six farmers were selected

randomly to make the total sample size of 90 farmers.

Internationl Research Journal of Agricultural Economics and Statistics

Volume 3 | Issue 1 | March, 2012 | 181-185

HIND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTEInternat. Res. J. agric. Eco.& Stat. 3(1)March, 2012:182

RESULTS AND DATA ANALYSIS

The findings of the present study well as relevant discussions

have been presented under following heads:

Labour utilization pattern in ginger production :

Details on per hectare labour use pattern for different

cultivation practices of ginger production are presented in Table

1. It could be observed from the table that farmers used total

47.03 men labour and 14.20 women labour, 1.19 bullock pair

days and 7.47 machine labour. It is interesting to note that

even though farmers owned small sized holding but had their

own bullock labour and none of them found to hire bullock

labour. Of the total men labour used (47.03 man days) 26.33

man days were family labour and 10.70 man days were hired.

The respective figures for women labour were 10.48 man days

and 4.72 man days. Out of total machine labour (7.47 machine

hour) 2.47 machine hour were family and 5.00 machine hours

were hired.

Ginger is a labour intensive crop. So, it requires more

labour compared to other crops although it is grown in smaller

area. It is evident from the results that major portion of the

labour force was supplied by the family members themselves.

This signifies more efficiency in labour use, as family members

when they work on field for major operations, they work with

more interest and hence, the operations were performed near

to perfect. The efforts were reflected in terms of better yields,

in turn better profits as it was reflected in Table 1. Among the

different operations in ginger production, harvesting operation

consumed the highest man days (21.22 man days) followed by

spreading of FYM, cleaning, ploughing, fertilizer application,

planting, earthling up, transportation of FYM, rhizome

treatment and weeding. In case of woman labour were use,

weeding operation consumed highest followed by spreading

of FYM, harvesting, transportation of FYM and cleaning. Ginger

crop requires more weeding operation. In a year four times

weeding has to be done. This operation requires more of woman

labour.

With respect to bullock pair use, in ploughing operation

only bullock pair were used, because most of the farmers use

hired machine for ploughing and other operations. Bullock pair

consumes more time but machine labour requires less time and

efficiency of operations are also very high in machine used

operations. These results are on par with those of Naik (2007)

who identified the labour utilization pattern for under-utilized

millets in Karnataka.

Costs and returns from ginger crop :

The annual cost incurred in cultivation and returns

obtained from ginger were worked out for small, medium and

large farmers and are presented in Table 2.

The total costs of cultivation for small farmers were Rs.

89,435.17, Rs. 87,203.30 and Rs. 87,015.34 for small, medium

BHARATI S. BHAT, C. MURTHY AND MOHAMMED YUSUF

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and large farmers, respectively. Total cost included total

variable cost and total fixed cost.

Among the fixed cost depreciation on machinery and

equipments was the most prominent among the three categories

which accounted for 2.66 per cent (Rs. 2383.95 per ha), 4.41 per

cent (Rs. 3850 per ha) and 6.21 per cent (Rs. 5407.082 per ha) of

the total cost, respectively, for small, medium and large farmers.

On the pooled basis the same cost accounted for 7.80 per cent

of the total cost accounting to Rs. 7672.50 per hectare. Thus,

the total fixed cost accounted for 3.08 per cent, 5.04 per cent,

7.16 per cent and 9.29 per cent of the total cost in that order.

The variable cost included material cost, labour cost and

interest on working capital. The total variable costs were Rs.

8,6681.15 per hectare, Rs. 8,2807.30 per hectare and Rs. 80,785.88

per hectare on small, medium and large farms, respectively

contributing to 96.92 per cent, 94.96 per cent and 92.84 per cent

of the total cost among the three categories, respectively. On

the overall level, it was Rs. 87,048.11 per hectare (90.70% of the

total cost). Among the material costs rhizome material cost was

the prominent one, which contributed 51.99 per cent, 52.37 per

cent and 50.51 per cent to the total cost, respectively in small,

medium and large farmer category. In value terms per hectares,

it worked out to be Rs. 46,500, Rs.44,800 and Rs.43,956 in that

order. At the pooled farm level, this cost was Rs. 46628.57 per

hectare accounting 48.59 per cent of the total cost. The total

material cost was 79.16 per cent, 79.13 per cent and 77.76 per

cent of the total cost in the three farmer categories, respectively.

Among labour cost, human labour cost, machine labour

cost and bullock labour cost were the cost items which

collectively contributed 11.41 per cent, 10.49 per cent and 10.19

per cent to the total cost, respectively in small, medium and

large farmer category

The gross returns per hectare of the produce realized was

Rs. 4,27,500, Rs. 4,47,750 and Rs. 4,65,442.50 on small, medium

and large farms, respectively. On the pooled farm basis it worked

out to be Rs. 4, 72,500 per hectare.

The net returns on per hectare basis was worked out to

be about Rs. 3,38,064, Rs.3,60,547 and Rs. 3,78,427 for small,

medium and large farms, respectively and on overall basis it

was Rs. 3,76,535 per hectare. The benefit cost ratios were 4.78,

5.13, 5.34 and 4.92 in small, medium, large and pooled farms,

respectively.

The cost of cultivation was higher in case of small

(Rs.89,435.17) farmers compared medium (Rs. 87,203.30) and

large (Rs. 87,015.34) farmers. However, there were no substantial

differences in the cost of cultivation between small, medium

and large farmers. It was mainly because of high cost of rhizome

material and more use of labour and fertilizers which were more

or less same for per unit area irrespective of size groups.

In case of all the category of farmers, cost on rhizome

material was the major component of the cost which accounts

around 51.99 per cent, 52.37 per cent and 50.51 per cent of the

total cost in the case of small, medium and large farmers,

respectively. Because of higher profitability in ginger crop,

many farmers shifted to ginger cultivation. But, the availability

of rhizome material was not sufficient to meet the demand of

farmers. Among the variable cost, labour cost was quite sizeable

as ginger is labour intensive crop. It requires more care

compared to other field crops like cereals and pulses. At the

time of harvesting, it requires maximum labour for digging,

uprooting and cleaning of rhizomes. In the study area most of

the farmers used machine power instead of bullock pair whether

he was a small, medium or large farmer for many of the

operations. Hence, there is wide scope for mechanization in

ginger cultivation. Ginger crop requires more FYM, fertilizers

and insecticides.

The average yields obtained in case of small, medium and

large farmers were 190 qt, 199 qt and 203 qt, respectively. The

net returns realized were Rs. 3.38 lakhs, Rs. 3.60 lakhs and

Rs.3.78 lakhs per hectare for the three categories of farmers,

respectively. Since, ginger is a highly remunerative high value

crop, it can be successfully adopted in the cropping pattern to

realize more farm income. Further, there is wide scope for

enhancing the returns from ginger cultivation by fine tuning

the cultivation operations, thereby reducing the variable costs.

The similar results were reported by Anil Kumar (2007), whose

study reported the cost of cultivation of ginger was Rs.84,849.06

per hectare in Nainital area of Uttarakhand.

Problems in ginger production :

Table 3 depicts the results of Garrett ranking analysis of

problems associated with production of ginger. Among seven

Table 3 : Production problems faced by ginger farmers (Garrett’s score)

Sr. No Particulars Sum of the scores Mean Ranks

1. High incidence of pest and disease 6915 76.83 I

2. High rate of plant protection measures 6135 68.17 II

3. High rate of rhizome material 5895 65.50 III

4. Non-availability of labour 5411 60.12 IV

5. High wage rate 4969 55.21 V

6. Non-availability of rhizome material 4692 52.13 VI

7. Non-availability of pesticides and insecticides 4335 48.17 VII

BHARATI S. BHAT, C. MURTHY AND MOHAMMED YUSUF

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HIND AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND TRAINING INSTITUTE

Internat. Res. J. agric. Eco. & Stat. 3(1) March, 2012: 185

factors, the incidence of pest and disease was the major problem

expressed by most of the farmers so this problem got assigned

first rank, followed by high rate of plant protection chemicals

(II), high rate of rhizome material (III), non-availability of labour

(IV), high wage rate (V), non-availability of rhizome material

(VI), non-availability of pesticides and insecticides (VII).

The sample farmer revealed that as such there were

problems in production of ginger. The opinion survey was

conducted regarding the problems faced by sample farmers in

production of ginger and were subjected to Garrett’s ranking

technique. Among the seven factors considered, high incidence

of pests and diseases was the major problem expressed by

most of the respondents. Ginger is the rhizome crop which

grows beneath the soil, hence, more susceptible to diseases.

Heavy rainfall during monsoon season would aggravate

disease menace. Hence, more care has to be given to protect

the crop. Proper training on disease management at regular

intervals would help the farmers to come out of such problems.

The extension agencies need to gear up their activities in these

lines.

High rate of rhizome material was another serious problem

as experienced by many respondents. The seeds of high

yielding varieties are usually priced high. Farmers comparing

the prices of the local own seed material with these high yielding

variety, planting material and opined that the planting material

rate is high is quite obvious. It is not a serious problem perceived

by the farmers as high rhizome cost is much more compensated

by higher yields and thus improved returns.

In recent years many labour migrate from one place to

another in search of alternative occupations. Hence, non-

availability of labour has become a universal problem in farming

activities. This would lead to higher wage rates. Other problems

like non-availability of pesticides, insecticides and rhizome

materials are not so serious which can be rectified locally by

collective action.

Authors’ affiliations:

BHARATI S. BHAT AND MOHAMMED YUSUF, Department of

Agribusiness Management, University of Agricultural Sciences,

DHARWAD (KARNATAKA) INDIA

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