LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 13 : 2 February 2013
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Food and Non-Food Production in Unirrigated Agriculture:
A Study in Perambalur District, Tamil Nadu

A. Gayathri and Dr. P. Veerachamy

Abstract

The paper examines the economics of unirrigated agricultural production in Perambalur district, Tamil Nadu. The study attempts to analyse the cost of cultivation, productivity and the relationship between farm size and productivity in unirrigated agricultural field. Perambalur district is selected as a study district where 94.28 per cent of gross sown area is used for cultivating food crops and remaining 5.72 per cent for non-food crops.

Veebanthattai and Veeppur blocks are selected as a food and non-food crop cultivating blocks at the second stage. Anukkur, Tondamandurai, Venbavur and Vengalam are sleleted as representative food crop villages in Veebanthattai block. Further, Andhur, Assor, Odiyam and Perali are selected as representative non-food crop villages in Veppur block.

In each of the representative food and non-food cultivation villages, 10 farm households are surveyed from each farm categories, i.e., Marginal, Small, Medium and Large through the disproportionate stratified random sampling method. In each block, 160 sample respondents were surveyed and the total sample households stood at 320.

From the analsysis, it is found that the average yield and average net income are inversely related with the farm size. The availability of family labour, pest and fertilizer management, harvesting management and regular supervision improves the farm yield and higher level of average net income. Cost of cultivation is huge for marginal and small farmers as compared to medium and large farms. The fact is that the large and medium farms own tractors, tillers and sprayers, which minimize the cost of cultivation of the large and medium farms. The unirrigated agriculture parts play a major role in food and non-food cultivation and Government role in providing irrigational facilities may help the farmer’s livelihood to a large extent.

Key Words: Unirrigated Agriculture, Farm Size, Productivity, Rainfall

1. Introduction

This paper makes an attempt to explore the economics of unirrigated agricultural production in Perambalur district, Tamil Nadu. Agriculture continues to be the main economic activity in rural areas of the developing world in spite of a steady diversification of their economic base during the preceding decades. Likewise, agriculture is the backbone of the rural India and the largest industry in the country. The role of agriculture is important in terms of food security, international trade and economic development. India ranks first among the countries that practice unirrigated agriculture both in terms of extent and value of production. India has 143 million hectares of agricultural land and about 108 million hectares are unirrigated area, which constitutes nearly 75 per cent of the total land (Kumar et al., 2009). Unirrigated agriculture is largely practiced in arid, semi-arid and subhumid regions in the country. With about 68 per cent of rural population, these regions are also home to 81 per cent of rural poor (Rao et al., 2005). In such areas, crop production has become difficult as the intensity and frequency of rainfall is low.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

A. Gayathri
Assistant Professor
Economics Wing
Directorate of Distance Education
Annamalai University
Annamalai Nagar
Chidambaram 608 002
Tamil Nadu
India
clickin_yuva@yahoo.co.in

Dr. P. Veerachamy
Assistant Professor
Department of Economics
Annamalai University
Annamalai Nagar
Chidambaram
Tamil Nadu, 608 002
veerasamy_p@yahoo.co.in
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