An Analysis Of Coconut Production In Tamil Na...

An Analysis Of Coconut Production In Tamil Nadu, India

Author Name : M. Yesurajan, R.Sankaranarayanan

ABSTRACT Coconut is unique among all horticultural crops as a source of food, drink, shelter, fibre, medicine and a variety of raw materials for industrial exploitation. So it is regarded as the tree of life or the jewel of the tropics and it is undoubtedly the most economically important palm in the world.. The crop has a significant impact on the social and cultural lives of the people in the country. The cost and return from coconut cultivation has a profound influence on the rural economy of many states, especially Tamil Nadu. The study intends to analyse the coconut cultivation in Theni district of Tamil Nadu. The study is analytical in nature. The primary data were collected from 30 coconut farmers in Periyakulam Taluk of Theni district by employing simple random sampling method. A well structured interview schedule was used to gather data from the respondents. The simple percentage analysis was applied to analyse the data. The study found that the majority of the coconut cultivators are male and are in the age group of 50 - 60 years. A sizable number (41.9 per cent) of the respondents are illiterate and 7.7 and 3.2 percent of respondents have post graduation and diploma respectively. The majority of (53.6 per cent) of the respondents earn average income of rupees1,00,001-2,00,000. There were 73.3 per cent of the sample respondents have coconut trees which yield 6 month to 1 year. Farmers have been cultivated both tall and hybrid tree but hybrid tree was cultivated largely in the study area. 74 per cent of respondents received reasonable price, 16.7 percent have good price and remaining 9.3 per cent received unreasonable price in the market. Majority 81.4 per cent of farmers were sold the coconut with husk, 6.6 per cent of respondents were sold without husk and balanced 12 per cent of dry coconut sold to the market in the study area. Majority of the farmers faced more problems from marketing due to price fluctuation as well as involving intermediates’ in the market. Therefore, introducing cooperative farming will help to address the issues associates with marketing of coconut.