Production and Marketing of Betel Leaf in Odisha: An Economic Analysis

Abstract

Betel Leaf is a commercial horticultural crop with unleashed economic potential. It is not only part of our cultural traditions but also has great significance in the Ayurveda. Odisha being one of the prominent betel leaf growing state the crop has economic impact on the betel leaf growers of the state. Multistage random sampling technique was adopted to select 60 betel leaf growers. In the initial first year the cost incurred by respondents is more because of additional cost incurred on baroj construction. Net return was calculated by subtracting total costs from total returns; in the following years it gets amplified with the increase in economic life of the crop. Resource use efficiency was analyzed by examining production by Cobb-Douglas production function. All the resources used are significant but seed is the only resource whose use is being ill afforded. Of the two major marketing channels prevalent in the area, the channel that was comparatively more efficient was Producer-Wholesaler- Retailer – Consumer. The other channel that was prevalent was Producer- Pre-harvest contractor- Wholesaler- Retailer – Consumer. To identify the constraints Garett’s ranking method was employed. The prime constraint that caused hindrance in optimum production and marketing of betel leaf were disease severity and price fluctuations respectively. The crop despite the capacity to earn foreign currency has been of less interest to both researchers as well as policy makers. This paper tends to analyze the economic potential of this horticultural crop to enable the policymakers understand its role in the rural economy.