INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 03, MARCH 2020 ISSN 2277-8616 A Study On Problems Faced By Paddy Cultivators In Salem District Dr.M.Suguna, M.Jayanthi Abstract— Agriculture sector plays a vital role in Indian economy and it is the back bone of our country. India is endowed with land and water resources with conductive agro-climatic advantages for cultivation of paddy. Paddy is mainly grown in rain fed areas which receives heavy annual rainfall; it is primarily a kharif crop in India. Paddy is the important food crop in India; importance of paddy in agricultural crops cannot be ignored as it is the staple food for more than fifty percentage of population in the world. This study examines to identify the factors influencing paddy cultivation, to determine cultivating problems and marketing problems of paddy in the district of Salem in Tamil Nadu. Pre-scheduled interview questionnaire is prepared and circulated among the 84 respondents using convenient sampling. The results were obtained by application of statistical tools like percentage analysis and one sample t-test. Keywords—Agricultural sector, Cultivation problems, Indian economy, Marketing problems, Paddy production. ———————————————————— 1 INTRODUCTION Thalaivasal and Attur are the major concentration of paddy The Agricultural sector in India still contributes to the overall and high paddy concentrations of paddy and high paddy Attur, growth of the economy and provides livelihood and food Thalaivasal and Sankagiri. Many agricultural products security to a majority of the population. Monitoring the rice produced from Salem, a wide spread marketing throughout the market is a critical task considering more than half of the country. world’s population consumes rice on a daily basis (M. Shahbandeh, Aug-9, 2019). Importance of rice in agricultural Paddy variety in India crops cannot be ignored as is the staple food for more than India is many varieties of paddy cultivation. Some important 70% population of the world and a big source to cope with the paddy varieties are 74 count, Aizon Rice, Ambemohar, food security issue of the world (Muhammad Abdullah 2013). Annapoorna, Atop,Basmati Rice, BhutMuri (keras), Champaa The Asian continent dominates is terms of global rice Rice, Clearfield Rice, Gandhasala, GobindoBhog, Hansaraj, production with china and India leading the way. Rice is HasanSerai, HMT rice, Idly Rice-Short grain, Jay Shrirama among the three food crops of the world, with maize and Rice, Joha Rice, Jyothi, Kamini Rice, kattasambar, wheat being the other two. Human consumption was LaxmiBhog, Minicate, Super minicate, Molakolukulu, Navara responsible for 78% of the total usage of production rice. The Rice, Patna Rice, Masori, BPT, Fine, No –III, 2716, Coarse, top 10 production countries are the first place India Parmal, Swarna, Super Fine, Patnai Fine, CR 1009 and No I. (https://www.worldatlas.com/). Tamil Nadu is one of the leading (Kasula Sekhara- 2019). rice growing state in India, has been cultivating rice from immemorial as this state is endowed with all favorable climatic 2 REVIEW OF LITERATURE condition suitable for rice growing. But last five years rice (S. Anitha Jose 2016) main objectives where to know the production level goes down (i.e) May-9, 2019. scope for paddy cultivation, know the modern technology that can be applied in agriculture, various problems faced by the Tamil Nadu Rice Production 2013-2018 paddy cultivation, getting yield and marketing of paddy. (M. Rice Production Increase (or) S.No Years Ramasuntharam & K. Banukumar 2012) this study main (Lack Metric tons) Decrease examined the crop combination region in Tamil Nadu, using 1 2013-14 71.15 2 2014-15 79.49 +8.34 Map Info and GIS. To identify the ranking of crops and crop 3 2015-16 73.75 -5.74 combination regions Tamil Nadu crop combination. (Richard 4 2016-17 35.54 -38.21 Paul V & Radha Devi 2017) analyzed the paddy cultivation in 5 2017-18 63.38 +27.84 different size level of farmers and the constraint analysis 6 2018-19 61.19 -2.19 applied and concluded as providing financial assistance and (Sources: Times of India May-9, 2019) establishing agriculture information centers for proper utilization of input variables by farmers may increase the Agriculture is the mainstay of the Salem district as 70% of the paddy production. (Muhammad Abdullah, Cuixia, Bushra population is engaged in Agriculture (District Agricultural Ghazan 2013) analyzed socio economic characteristics and Communication Centre www.salem.tn.nic.in. Paddy is also inquired about the problems faced by rice growers and important food crop in Salem district Thalaivasal, Attur, determined the satisfaction level among the rice farmers about Ayothiyapattinam, Gangavalli, and Sankagiri are major government policies. producer of paddy. 3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Most of the people’s basic food is rice; India was the second largest producer of paddy in the world as of 2013, its yield is ________________________ lower than China, Brazil and the USA (PRS Legislative Research). Rice producers are to be concentrated as the 1. Dr. M. SUGUNA, Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Periyar production of paddy has gone down and India has come down University, Salem, Tamil Nadu. to third place in rice production from the term largest producer 2. M. JAYANTHI, Ph.D Research Scholar, Department of Commerce, Periyar in world. Because of the farmers basic problems in rice University, Salem, Tamil Nadu. 3364 IJSTR©2020 www.ijstr.org INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 9, ISSUE 03, MARCH 2020 ISSN 2277-8616 production and marketing are still unsolved. That made the researcher to investigate about the various problems faced by Table.1 shows that it is clear from the above table that 76.2% paddy producing farmers especially in Salem district of Tamil of the respondents are Male and 23.8% of the respondents are Nadu. Female. It is clear from the above table that 6.0% of them belong to the age group of below 30 years, 22.6% of them 4 IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY belong to the age group of 30-40 years, 33.3% of the According to the report provided by Statista.com Annual yield respondents belong to the age group of 41-50 years and of rice in India has been raised to 2.6 thousand kilograms per 38.1% of them belong to the age group of above 50 years. The hectare in 2019 from 2.5 thousand kilograms in 2018. This important level of education among the respondent is high comes as no surprise seeing as rice is a staple food grain in school level with 47.6%. It is clear from the 100% of the India, with the yield competing with China’s (Statista.com respondents are married. The majority of the respondents Research Department, Sep-25, 2019). According to the report have below 5 acres in 75% and 25% of the respondent 5-10 provided by Times of India the annual yield of rice in Tamil acres. The majority of the respondents have more than 20 Nadu was 63.38 Lack Metric tons in the year 2017-2018. As years 28.6% and 1.2% of the respondents below 5 years of an unexpected situation paddy production decreased to 61.19 experience. The majority of the respondent kharif season in Lack Metric tons in this year 2018-2019. 100%. The majority of the respondents sell their product at local market 65.6%. 5 OBJECTIVES 6.2 Table 2 1. To identify the factors influencing cultivation of paddy. 2. To identify the problems faced by the farmers while Total Variance Explaineda cultivating and marketing of paddy in Salem district. Comp Initial Eigen-values Extraction Sums of onen Squared Loadings 6 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY t Total % of Cumulati Total % of Cumula The following methodology is adopted to study the above Variance ve % Varian tive % objectives. The present study is extended over Salem district ce of Tamil Nadu. Convenient sampling design is used, as it is 26.62 26.62 4.26 26.6 26.6 1 4.260 generally believe the technology is size based on the list of 5 5 0 25 25 19.69 46.32 3.15 19.6 46.3 farmers. The following tools are used for attaining and 2 3.152 9 4 2 99 24 analyzing the above mentioned objectives; Percentage 18.36 64.69 2.93 18.3 64.6 3 2.939 analysis, One-Sample t-test for both cultivation and marketing 6 0 9 66 90 problems. 16.07 80.76 2.57 16.0 80.7 4 2.572 2 2 2 72 62 12.38 93.14 1.98 12.3 93.1 6.1 Table 1 5 1.981 1 3 1 81 43 98.21 6 .812 5.076 Percentage Analysis 9 Variables Groups Frequency Percentage 100.0 7 .285 1.781 Male 64 76.2 00 Gender Female 20 23.8 9.016E- 5.635 100.0 8 Total 84 100 016 E-015 00 Below 30 years 5 6.0 6.449E- 4.031 100.0 9 30-40 years 19 22.6 016 E-015 00 Age 41-50 years 28 33.3 1 3.991E- 2.494 100.0 Above 50 years 32 38.1 0 016 E-015 00 Total 84 100 1 2.240E- 1.400 100.0 Illiterate 33 39.3 1 016 E-015 00 School level 40 47.6 1 9.497E- 5.936 100.0 Educational level College level 7 8.3 2 018 E-017 00 Professional /others 4 4.8 - - 1 100.0 Total 84 100 2.019E- 1.262E- 3 00 Married 84 100.0 017 016 Marital Status Total 84 100 - - 1 100.0 Below 5 acres 63 75.0 3.100E- 1.938E- How Many 4 00 5 - 10 acres 21 25.0 016 015 Hectors Total 84 100 - - 1 100.0 7.878E- 4.924E- Less than 5 years 1 1.2 5 00 5 – 10 years 14 16.7 016 015 - - Experience of 11 – 15 years 24 28.6 1 100.0 9.308E- 5.817E- Cultivation 16 – 20 years 21 25.0 6 00 More than 20 years 24 28.6 016 015 Total 84 100 Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis.a Kharif 84 100 Cultivating Paddy Total 84 100 a.