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Food & Agribusiness Management (FABM) 1(2) (2021) 8 8-91 Food & Agribusiness Management (FABM) DOI: http://doi.org/10.26480/fabm.02.2021.88.91 ISSN: 2716-6678 (Online) CODEN: FAMOCP RESEARCH ARTICLE PRODUCTION AND MARKETING OF APPLE IN APPLE SUB-SECTOR DOLPA, NEPAL Laxmi Narayan Ojha*, Pratibha Bist, Prashant Bhatt Agriculture and Forestry University, Chitwan, Nepal *Corresponding Author e-mail: [email protected] This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ARTICLE DETAILS ABSTRACT Article History: Dolpa is the largest district and one of the major apple-producing districts of Nepal. It had seemingly an increasing trend of production and productivity of apple despite having low productivity than the national Received 20 February 2021 average. A study was carried out to study the production and marketing status of the district. Preliminary Accepted 26 March 2020 studies were done and a household survey was carried out among 125 apple-growing farmers from different Available online 0 2021 wards of Tripurasundari and Thulibheri Municipality. 10 commercial farmers in Juphal along with five 6 May wholesalers and retailers each based in Nepalgunj were also interviewed to observe the marketing status of apple. 16.59 % of the income was generated through apple production behind government jobs and other agricultural activities. Apple farming was found profitable with BC ratio of 1.39. Training, technical assistance, experience, and landholding were found to have a positive influence on the apple-growing farmers. The overall productivity of apple in the area was 7.55 MT per ha, which was lower than the national average. Improper Post-harvest handling and storage facility had created a post-harvest loss of 14.33 %. Most of the produce was marketed within the district only due to lack of good roads. Lack of irrigation and insect pest attack were the major production problems whereas lack of storage and poor transportation as the major marketing problems. Increasing the frequency of extension works, technical assistance and good transport of the produce were needed to be focused. KEYWORDS Fruits, Apple, Production, Production, Marketing 1. INTRODUCTION the major apple-producing districts of the country. The largest productive area under apple in Nepal is in Jumla (850 ha) followed by Mustang (360 Apple is also a major temperate fruit of Nepal. Apple is grown in a total of ha) and Dolpa (315 ha) (MoALD, Statistical Information on Nepalese 10,886 ha, of which 4133 ha is the productive area and the average Agriculture, 2017). Of the total cultivated area under apple in Dolpa, the productivity of apple in the country is 7 Mt per ha (MoALD, Statistical percentage productive area is only 33.15%. It is the largest district of Information on Nepalese Agriculture, 2017). Apple is the most important Nepal which is located at 28°43’N to 29°43’N latitude and 82°23’E to 83° winter deciduous fruit of Nepal in terms of area, production and household 41’E longitude. The district spreads over an altitudinal range of 1,525 to economy for rural mountainous districts of Nepal (Atreya and Kafle, 7,625 meters above mean sea level. The major part of the district (70.2%) 2016). The Government of Nepal has also envisaged apple as one of the lies in the Trans Himalayan climatic zone while only 5.2 % of the area lies most important high-value cash crops. The fruit production in Nepal is in the temperate zone (Wikipedia, 2020). increasing but at a slow rate (Thapa et al., 2004). Dolpa district is one of Table 1: Production and productivity status of Dolpa District Productivity Dolpa Years Area apple (ha) Productive area (ha) Production (MT) Productivity Nepal (MT/ha) (MT/ha) 2015/16 850 355 568 1.6 7.3 2016/17 950 315 1150 3.65 5.36 2017/18 955 331 1654 5 7 2018/19 967 338 1696 5 7.22 Statistical Information on Nepalese Agriculture 2015/16, 2017/18, 2018/19 As per the above-mentioned data, Dolpa has seemingly an increasing trend farming was recently been increasing which suggests the study of all the of production and productivity of apple despite having low productivity aspects related. than the national average. The study of the production and marketing status and related problems was very important to enlighten the capacity The apples of Dolpa, because no chemicals are used in their production, of the district in apple production. The households of the district have been are, by default, organic which can open possibilities of earning higher cultivating apple trees for a long and the commercialization of apple remunerations by marketing them under the label ‘Organic’. Since the Quick Response Code Access this article online Website: DOI: www.fabm.org.my 10.26480/fabm.02.2020. 89.91 Cite The Article: Kolapo Adetomiwa And Kolapo Adeyera James(2021).Dynamic Groundnut Supply Response In Nigeria: A Partial Adjustment Approach. Food & Agribusiness Management, 1(2): 89-91. Food & Agribusiness Management (FABM) 1(2) (2021) 88-91 district offers great potential in apple farming, a scientific study aimed at Y= b0 + b1X1 + b2X2 + b3X3 + b4X4 + b5X5 + b6X6 + b7X7 + b8X8 + b9X9 + U the aspects of production and marketing is imperative. Agricultural marketing services play an important role in the rural agricultural Where, Y= Production of apple (quintals); b0= Regression coefficient; b1, development of the country. However, farmers in the mountainous b2… b9 = regression coefficients; X1= Gender of household head; X2= Age of regions of Nepal are being harassed and exploited by intermediaries the household head; X3= Annual household income; X4= Family size; X5 = because of their weak bargaining power and poor economic condition Training Received; X6 = Constant technical assistance received; X7 = (Pokhrel and Thapa, 2007). Experience of the farmers (years); X8 = Institutional involvement; X9 = Land holding of the farmers(ha) and U = Error term The major constraints to apple farming in Solukhumbu district (which has a similar climatic scenario as of Dolpa) were found to be a predominance Variables X2, X3, X4, X7 and X9 are continuous variables (scale) and the rest of smallholder farming, a longer gestation period of apple fruit trees, lack were created as dummy variables. of technical know-how, unfavorable climatic conditions such as hailstones 2.3.4 Regression diagnostics and high rainfall during fruit set, the incidence of disease and insect pests, lack of quality saplings and fruit damage by wild animals and birds (Shahi, The response variable ‘Production’ was tested for normality using the 2005). These type of the status and problems which creates obstacles in Shapiro-Wilk test and the statistic obtained was found to be non- proper production and marketing of produce in the area were needed to significant. The explanatory variables used in models were tested for be addressed. multicollinearity through the estimation of the Variance Inflation Factor (VIF). The VIF value of 10 is recommended as the maximum level. 2. MATERIAL AND METHODS 2.3.5 Farmers’ perception on production and marketing related 2.1 Study Area problems Two wards (3 and 4) from Tripurasundari Municipality and four wards The index was prepared mainly taking into account the qualitative data. (4,7,8,9) from Thulibheri Municipality were purposively selected for the On the basis of responded frequencies, weighted indexes were calculated study because most of the apple production is concentrated around the for the analysis of farmers’ perception on the extent of production and only airport of the district – Juphal airport, because airways are the only marketing problems of apple growers in the region. The farmers’ means of transporting apples to Nepalgunj and other cities. perception was ranked by using five-point scale of problems: 5 for the first priority, 4 for second, 3 for third, 2 for fourth and 1 for fifth priority. Then the priority index for each variable was calculated by weightage mean in order to draw valid conclusion and making a reasonable decision. The index of importance was then computed with the help of the formula: 푆푖 ×퐹푖 Iimp = ∑ 푁 th where, Iimp = index of importance; ∑ = summation; Si = i scale value; Fi = frequency of ith importance given by the respondents; N = total number of respondents 3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION The sex ratio of the respondent households was found to be 0.93. The dependency ratio was found to be 0.65, which is less than the national Figure 1: Map of Nepal showing Dolpa district with study site mean (0.85). The percentage economically active population was 60.73, which was slightly lower than the national mean (64%). The average 2.2 Research Instruments family size in the study area was 5.93, which is higher than the national Preliminary information about the field conditions, socio-cultural settings, average of household size (4.9) in 2011 (CBS, 2011). Only 14.44 percent of demographic and topographic features of the study area was collected the respondent population were illiterate. The ethnicity of the population through field visit, key informant interview and Focus Group Discussion was dominated by Chhetri (89.6%) followed by Dalits, Brahmin and (FGD). A semi-structured questionnaire was developed and a sampling Janajati. Livestock rearing was also a major agricultural activity with the frame was prepared on the basis of information collected through the tools average Standard Livestock Unit (LSU) of 7.11 with a minimum of 1 and a mentioned and the profile of apple growing farmers made by respective maximum of 26 (1 LSU= 1000 pounds). wards. A total of 20 households were selected from each ward, except 3.1 Analysis of share of apple in household income ward no 8, from where 25 households were sampled using simple random techniques.