A Study on General Characteristics, Farm Inventory and Constraints Faced by the Farmers in Production and Marketing of Pomegranate

Abstract

A Pomegranate, or Punica granatum, is a member of the Punicaceae family and is one of the fruit crops commercially cultivated in India. Pomegranate is increasingly becoming a favored crop in Chitradurga district due to frequent droughts, leading to the failure of seasonal crops, as well as the lack of laborers available during peak seasons for growing seasonal crops. The research focused on examining the socio-economic traits, farm resources, and challenges encountered by pomegranate producers in both production and marketing. This study was intentionally carried out in the Chitradurga district of Karnataka, where the land used for pomegranate was considerable. In Chitradurga district, the study purposefully selected three taluks, namely Hiriyur, Hosadurga, and Challakere, due to their significant crop acreage. A total of 90 respondents from 3 thaluks and 9 villages. The primary data was collected through pre-revised survey interview schedules. From each taluk, three villages were selected and a random selection of 10 sample respondents from each village was selected for the study, hence constituting a total of 90 respondents. The primary data was collected through pre-received survey interview schedules. The general characteristic of the sample farmers indicates that the average age of the sample farmers was around 30 years.  The majority of the sample farmers belonged to 35-50 age group (41.11 %) followed by above 50 age group (35.56 %) and the below 21 (23.33 %). The majority of the farmers (61.11%) possessed the dairy cows followed by buffaloes (25.56%) and calves (25.56%). In the production constraints, all the farmers are facing the problem of incidence of pest and disease (100%) followed by high of pesticides (86.67%), low knowledge about recommended use of pesticides and fertilisers (82.2%), non-availability of labor (74.44%) and half of the farmers facing the problem of non-availability of good quality planting material. In conclusion, the major and least problems faced by the Pomegranate farmer are pests & diseases and lack of storage facilities, respectively.