Economics of Sugarcane Cultivation in Tirupattur Block of Vellore District

Abstract

Sugarcane is one of the cash crop cultivated in many parts of the country with varying impact on the socio-economic condition of small and marginal farmers. Since sugarcane is cultivated across the country, Tamil Nadu is one of the important destinations where sugarcane is cultivated in an extensive manner and Vellore district prone to be a pioneer in sugarcane cultivation. The major varieties cultivated in Vellore district are coc82032, coc8201, coc90063, manjula cultivated across the district. The cost of inputs, soil conditions, irrigation & labour, which influence the production and productivity of sugarcane cultivation in the study area which are carried out under rainfed conditions. The study focused to study the different varieties of sugarcane cultivated in the study area, productive capacity of different varieties of sugarcane, resource use efficiency of inputs in cultivating sugarcane and to examine the intruding problems and suggest appropriate measures to enhance sugarcane production. The study was carried out in Tirupattur block of Vellore district, data was collected from 108 farmers on the basis of the land holding pattern. The data was collected during the month May and June 2014 from the selected farmers and analysed with the help of appropriate statistical tools. The findings of the study shows that the cost incurred on land preparation and cost incurred on pesticides are statistically significant at 5% level of significance whereas the cost incurred on Labour and area under sugarcane are statistically significant at 1% level of significance. It is also found that there exists high positive correlation between the total production and total income with respect to different varieties of sugarcane cultivation in the study area. The result from the chi-square test reveals that the different varieties of sugarcane namely coc86032, coc86021, coc90063 and manjula variety hutched marginal income to the selected farmers in the study area. The study suggests that necessary efforts should be made to safeguard the farmers against instability and take measures to improve the location-specific technology and to reduce the soaring cost of cultivation.