Problems experienced by farmers in arecanut cultivation

Abstract

The studies were conducted on problems experienced by farmers in arecanut\rcultivation. Observation was found that 16 per cent of yield gap between demonstration plot\rand actual farmers plot yield in arecanut. The total yield gap between potential yield and actual\ryield was 32 per cent. Majority of the big farmers (66 %) and small farmers (50 %) were medium\rlevel of adoption. Majority of the big farmers fully adopted the practices like spacing, pit size,\rnumber of seedlings per acre and drip irrigation methods, whereas technologies fully adopted\rby small farmers were pit size (86 %), number of seedlings per acre (74 %) and spacing (66 %).\rCent per cent of small and big farmers have not applied weedicide. More than 70 per cent of\rsmall farmers have not adopted technologies such as improved variety selection, good quality\rseedling selection procedure, recommended dose of inorganic fertilizers and red palm weevil\rmanagement, more than half of the big farmers did not adopt seedling selection procedure,\rpulse crops as intercrops and red palm weevil management practices. High cost and non\ravailability of labour, erratic supply of electricity and low price for the produce were the major\rproduction constraints perceived by the arecanut growers. A great majority of big and small\rfarmers opined that providing continuous power supply, fixed price for the produce, create\rawareness programmes for control of pest and diseases were the major suggestions to overcome\rthe production constraint of arecanut by the farmers.