A Study on Growth of Procurement of Arecanut by Different Marketing Agencies for the Benefit of the Farmers

Abstract

The arecanut palm (Areca catechu L.,) is a significant commercial and business crop of India. It plays an important role in the political, social and cultural functions and the economic life of people in our country. From an area of 12.26 lakh hectares of land, the total arecanut production at the global level was 17.96 lakh tonnes in 2019–20.In India, arecanut crop has been cultivated from time immemorial with traditional cultivation techniques and one of the biggest traditional areca-growing countries in the world level. Arecanut is a major and commercial plantation crop cultivated in peninsular and Eastern India. The detailed information needed for the study was gathered from secondary sources. For the study two marketing societies/developmental agencies were selected i.e RAMCOS and TUMCOS. The secondary data was collected from the marketing agencies regarding membership of societies and procurement of arecanut from 2007-08 to 2021-22. In order to arrive at the meaningful results the Descriptive statistics and compound annual growth rate were employed. The compound annual growth rate for number of members of the TUMCOS societies shows positive trend 10.68 per cent. The compound annual growth rate of procurement of arecanut exhibited a growth of 7.14 per cent. The compound annual growth rate for number of members of RAMCOS growth rate was 5.98 per cent. The negative growth rate in procurement of arecanut by the RAMCOS agency (-3.91%). The society is successful in gaining attention of arecanut growers towards the society by providing various schemes like credit facilities to the members, providing agricultural inputs and insurance to the farmers. RAMCOS and TUMCOS is providing fair price for areca nut. The marketing societies are a reputed areca nut marketing society working in Shivamogga and Davanagere district as a role model for other co-operative societies.