MANAGERIAL EFFICIENCY OF COCONUT PLANTATION GROWERS IN COASTAL AREA OF SAURASHTRA REGION
KrishiKosh
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Title |
MANAGERIAL EFFICIENCY OF COCONUT PLANTATION GROWERS IN COASTAL AREA OF SAURASHTRA REGION
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Creator |
KALSARIYA BAVBHAI NAYABHAI
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Contributor |
Popat M.N.
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Subject |
coconuts
EXTENSION EDUCATION |
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Description |
The coconut palm (Cocos nucifera Linn.) is the most useful palm in the world. Every part of the tree is useful. It is much attached to the emotions of the people in the South East Asia that it forms a part of the mythology and culture and is auspicious in various ceremonies. Coconut tree is ranked among one of the 10 most useful trees of the world and is often termed as 'kalpavriksha', the "tree of life". Copra obtained by drying the kernel of coconut is the richest source of vegetable oil containing 65 to 70 per cent oil. Several other products are derived from coconut palm and they too are used in many applications. Copra is used to extract coconut oil and coconut meal in the ratio of 3:2. The products like hair oil, soaps, shampoos and medicines require coconut oil as an important ingredient. Also the kernel is quite popular in a vast number of cuisines. Coconut occupies prime position in the cultural, social and economic lives of millions of people across the world. The crop husbandry and allied activities provide livelihood and food security to more than 10 million people in India. Coconut oil, the main commercial product, determines prices of coconut and its products. The increasing trend in area and production of coconut in the country with the regress in the consumption of coconut oil in both edible and non-edible sector on account of cheap substitutes necessitated development of broad based processing and cultivation technologies for sustainable growth of the industry. Traditionally coconut industry in India has concentrated on copra making, extraction of coconut oil and coir manufacturing. Economic globalization has added integrated various regional markets into a world market. As a result, various new coconut products from elsewhere in the world have found a prominent place in the product profile of the food chain markets in the country. To make the industry competitive, significant changes have to be made in domestic market in terms of product developments and deep market integration. Emphasis has to be given for value addition in coconut through product diversification and by-product utilization and for evolving technologies for development of new value added products in tune with those of other leading countries. Management may in short be called a science of decisionmaking or a science of choice. A farmer has to make judicious decisions on the use of scarce resources, having alternative uses to obtain the maximum profit and family satisfaction on a continuous basis from the farm as a whole. In other words, management seeks to help the farmer in deciding problems like what to produce, how much to produce and when to buy and sell and in organization and managerial problems relating to these decisions. Management plays an impressive role on the performance of four key tasks, namely, achieving economic performance, creating productive work, managing the social impact and responsibility of a business and managing the time dimension. The agriculture being an enterprise is not an exception to this. The coconut plantation growers as the manager of the enterprise are expected to bring about maximum profit with available resources. Coconut plantation growers perform many functions in carrying out the better production such as: preparing a plan of work, giving clear instructions, integrating the work, taking proper decision at right time, implementing the decision etc. in carrying out the management activity in coconut plantation. All the above functions involve in one or the other way, many management components viz. planning, organizing, directing, controlling, human relation, leading, coordinating and decision making. Today farming enterprise is becoming more complex and complicated and therefore, management is a key to face these problems. To make coconut plantation more productive, proper management of scientific coconut plantation practices should be adopted by coconut plantation growers. Therefore, the present study was designed to measure managerial efficiency of coconut plantation growers about scientific cultivation of coconut plantation and find out the effect of selected variables on managerial efficiency with the following objectives: 1. To study the personal, socio-economic, psychological and extension communication profile of coconut plantation growers. 2. To develop and standardize a scale to measure the managerial efficiency of coconut plantation growers in coconut cultivation. 3. To ascertain managerial efficiency of coconut plantation growers. 4. To assess the perception of coconut plantation growers about quality and damage caused by eriophyid mite on coconut. 5. To ascertain the relationship between managerial efficiency of coconut plantation growers and their selected characteristics. 6. To know the extent of variation caused by selected independent variables in the managerial efficiency of coconut plantation growers. 7. To elicit the constraints faced by coconut plantation growers in adoption of improved coconut cultivation technology and their suggestions to overcome the constraints. The study was conducted in the coastal areas of Saurashtra where coconut is a major crop. Total five talukas i.e. 3 talukas of Junagadh, 1 taluka of Porbandar and 1 taluka of Bhavnagar district were selected purposively which is having the highest coconut growing area. Three villages from each taluka and 10 respondents from each village i.e. total 15 villages and 150 respondents were included in the sample. The dependent variable undertaken in this study was managerial efficiency. The independent variables were age, educational status, farm size, area under coconut cultivation, herd size, annual income, social participation, access to market facilities, innovativeness, risk orientation, perception, symbolic adoption, attitude towards coconut cultivation, information seeking behaviour, extension participation and participation in training programme. To measure managerial efficiency of coconut plantation growers, a scale was developed using Normalised Rank Approach. Other variables were measured using different scales and indices. The data of this study were collected through personal interview. The data so collected were classified, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted in terms of objectives. The findings of the study are summarized as below: 1. In detail analysis of major indicators of managerial efficiency scale, the judges gave first rank to knowledge followed by planning, rational marketing, rational decision, budgeting, communication and human relationship, organizing, value addition, controlling and coordinating. Among the each main indicators, coconut plantation growers gave first position to intercropping and quality of coconut products in knowledge, planning about the inputs in ability to planning, technical competency in making decision in ability to make rational decision, coconut plantation growers gave importance to team work to achieve the goal in organizing the activities, consulting the extension worker when they heard about the incidences of insect-pests and eriophyid mite in epidemic condition or disease attack on the coconut plantation for coordinate activities, consultation with family members about source of credit for budgeting, well aware about co-operation with co-workers which produce better results in form of desirable work hours in communication and human relationship, supply of coconut fruits to the market when high price of produce in ability to make rational marketing, ability to sell the coconut produce after grading process which increase value addition and supervising the working of people while different agricultural operation in ability to controlling activities. 2. The managerial efficiency of coconut plantation growers under study was found predominantly medium (51.33 per cent). 3. More than three fourth (77.33 per cent) of the respondents were in middle and old age group and more than one third (34.00 per cent) of them were educated up to primary and middle level education. 4. Majority (86.00 per cent) of the coconut plantation growers were under the category of small and medium farmers, up to 5.00 acres of area under coconut cultivation (50.67 per cent), having small size of herd size (up to 3 animals) (47.33 per cent), majority of them had their earning of more than fifty thousand rupees per year (89.33 per cent), medium social participation (66.67 per cent) and 57.33 per cent of them had high access to market facilities. 5. Majority (37.33 per cent) of coconut plantation growers reported that they had adopted the innovation immediately after they had seen it, medium risk orientation (56.67 per cent), medium perception level about quality and damaged caused by eriophyid mite in coconut (63.33 per cent), medium symbolic adoption (60.00 per cent) and moderately to highly favourable attitude towards the cultivation of coconut (84.00 per cent). 6. Majority (60.67 per cent) of the coconut plantation growers were in the category of average and above average level in case of information seeking behaviour, medium level of extension participation (54.67 per cent) and 78.67 per cent coconut plantation growers were either medium trained or untrained. 7. Coconut plantation growers’ characteristics such as education, farm size, area under coconut plantation cultivation, annual income, access to market facilities, innovativeness, risk orientation, perception about quality and damaged cause by eriophyid mite, symbolic adoption, attitude toward coconut cultivation, information seeking behaviour and extension participation had significant relationship with managerial efficiency of coconut plantation growers. 8. Among 16 selected characteristics of coconut plantation growers, eleven variables viz.; age, educational status, farm size, area under coconut cultivation, annual income, social participation, access to market facilities, innovativeness, risk orientation and participation in training programme were contributing significantly to managerial efficiency of coconut plantation growers. All the 16 independent variables together explained total variation in managerial efficiency to the extent of 69.90 per cent. Access to market facilitates had great influence of 43.48 per cent. 9. Lack of awareness about control measure to eriophyid mite, serious problems of eriophyid mites, lack of modern spraying equipment to control the eriophyid mite, high cost of insecticides and pesticides, unremunerative price for tender nuts and mature nuts, neighboring farmers do not spray insecticides to control eriophyid mite so difficult to get good result, complicated method and delay / insufficient facilities of loan and subsidies, lack of timely availability of fertilizers, lack of emphasis on value addition training, problem of spraying insecticide while taking intercrop, intercropping increase weed problem and lack of knowledge about coconut based industry were the important constraints faced by the coconut plantation growers. 10. The most important suggestions offered by majority of the coconut plantation growers were; creating awareness about damaged and deteriorated quality of coconut caused by eriophyid mite, specific pest effective insecticide should be recommended, establishment of market facilities at local level, price of pesticides and fertilizers should be reasonable, government should provide subsidy for chemical fertilizer and short term training programme should be conducted on use of herbicide and plant protection measures. |
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Date |
2016-09-21T17:27:27Z
2016-09-21T17:27:27Z 2011-10 |
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Type |
Thesis
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Identifier |
http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/78220
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Language |
en
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Format |
application/pdf
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