Assessment of factors influencing production and marketing of groundnut and sunflower in Peninsular India

Abstract

Oilseeds are an important component in India’s agriculture and annually around 24 m. ha are planted to oilseeds with a production of around 24 m. t. In spite of significant growth achieved in oilseed production and productivity, the internal demand for edible oilseeds is not fully met. During the year 1998–99, 4.3 m. t. of edible oil/oilseeds worth Rs. 9000 crores were imported to meet the internal demand (Prasad, 2002). The demand for edible oil is increasing at an annual rate of 6 percent suggesting that the productivity of oilseeds need to be substantially increased in order to bridge the demand-supply gap. In spite of several measures taken in the area of oilseed production, the productivity of oilseeds in the country is lower compared to many other countries and even the world average. Obviously, there is a need and scope to step up productivity of these crops through appropriate technological development, management, marketing and policy measures. Two edible oilseed crops namely groundnut and sunflower account for more than 40 percent of edible oil supply in the country. The states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka figure predominantly in the production of groundnut and sunflower respectively. Country’s 21 percent of the groundnut production comes from Andhra Pradesh and 30 percent of sunflower production comes from Karnataka, but the productivity of both these crops in the respective states is below the national average. Oilseed production in these two states is largely confined to rainfed areas and dependent on monsoon and other weather factors. The improved agri-techniques although have large potential for improving productivity, its realization is dependent on understanding of the prevailing weather and edaphic factors and this in conjunction with improved technologies can help in pushing productivity to a higher level. The present study is an effort in this direction formulated to reveal the direct and indirect effects of various technological, weather, edaphic and management factors on productivity of these two major crops. Two districts having largest area under oilseeds in the country – Ananthapur in Andhra Pradesh for groundnut and Bijapur in Karnataka for sunflower were purposively selected which could serve as real representatives for these crops. The research design in the form of participatory field study involved 60 farmers each drawn from different socio-economic groups in Ananthapur district for groundnut and Bijapur for sunflower. The farmers for the sample were selected adopting a multistage purposive sampling technique. In addition to primary data collected on agro production technology adopted in groundnut and sunflower production in the study area, data on climatic and edaphic (soil) factors were collected. Using statistical tools of (i) Analysis of Variance (ii) Multiple Linear Regression Analysis (iii) Frontier Production Function (iv) Output Decomposition Model (v) Forecasting Models and (vi) Policy Analysis Matrix (PAM) inferences were drawn. The relative influence of major edaphic and management factors on productivity of groundnut and sunflower in the area under study, comparison of the efficiency of groundnut and sunflower production in the light of global trade and competitiveness and advance forecasting models and midseason corrections have been arrived at. It was found that the native soil fertility status in both the districts were from poor to average for the availability of important major and micronutrients. It was evident that the efficient crop management is the key to higher productivity as well as for the quality produce and in this the optimum plant nutrient management through the judicious mix of organics and inorganics seem to play a major role in both crops. The large yield gaps observed between high output and low output farmers are mainly due to difference in the levels of inputs used, inferring that enhancing input usage is important for bridging the yield gap in both the crops. It was also evident that 20 percent of groundnut farmers in Ananthapur district and 33 percent of sunflower farmers in Bijapur district are not using any agriculture inputs. The targeting of these farmers for technology transfer keeping in view their socio-economic background was found essential. The issues related to marketing, resource productivity in groundnut and sunflower production as well as technical efficiency besides Global Competitiveness of Production of these crops are some of the other areas covered in this investigation