Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2019) 8(11): 1693-1703 International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 8 Number 11 (2019) Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2019.811.197 Factors Influencing Establishment of Neem Plantations in Southern Tamil Nadu, India A. Divakaran1*, C. Sekhar1 and P. Balajji2 1Department of Agricultural Economics, 2Department of Agricultural and Rural Management, TNAU, Coimbatore – 641 003, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT st Neem declared as the tree of 21 century by United Nations. Neem plantation in agro - forestry will strengthen social and economic status of the rural households. K e yw or ds Collection of Neem seeds and leaves are the important means of supplementary employment and extra income for the rural households particularly the rural Neem, Economic women. Neem products are used in multiple uses and hence it has great demand. Potential of neem, Because of this, the farmers are interested in establishing Neem Plantations in Net present value, their farm hold ings. Neem is highly profitable according to economic parameters Internal rate of and capable of generating highest Internal Rate of Return. The cost of Neem seed return collection per kg is arrived at Rs three and the selling price is around 38 per kg on Article Info provision of quality seeds and hence certain seed collectors pay special attention Accepted: on maintaining the quality to get a higher price per unit of Neem seeds. On an 12 October 2019 average, a Neem tree could yield 58 kg of seeds and in a ha area, the plantation Available Online: can provide a yield of 11.75 tonnes of Neem seeds. Considering the economic 10 November 2019 potentials filled with Neem, higher area is visualized in the study environment in the future years. Price per unit of Neem seeds found to be the principal factor in influencing the Neem seed collection. Introduction hence the same has been approved by the United States’ Environmental Protection Neem tree has become an important tree in the Agency for use as food crops.From the global context today because it offers answers primeval times, Neem has been a noteworthy to the major concerns facing mankind. Such a common tree species in India due to its wonderful tree belongs to the family of multifunctional uses like Medicinal, Bio- Meliaceae which is native to dry forests of fertilizer, Fumigant, Bio-Pesticides, Oil Seeds South and Southeast Asia. Neem and its and Cattle Feed with various ecological and products are considered to be harmless and environmental benefits (Lokanadhan et al., 1693 Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2019) 8(11): 1693-1703 2012). The sixth World Neem Conference has chosen the district for conducting the study. which was held in Nagpur during 2012 also Besides the area, Oil Mills were available in predominantly focused on the utilization plenty in Madurai District and hence the aspects of Neem but its cultivation and Virudhunagar and Madurai Districts were development of value chain mechanisms purposively chosen in the First Stage. through agroforestry and urban forestry was not much addressed and needs momentum. After selecting the districts, the blocks which There are various Neem based agroforestry are having higher area under Neem were systems are observed in India. They are Agri- accessed by contacting the Department of Silviculture, Agri-Silvi-Horticulture, Silvi- Agriculture officials available in Pastoral systems and shelter belts / windbreaks Virudhunagar District and the following etc. Neem based agroforestry systems are not blocks were selected. put into focused research specifically on socio-economic aspects of establishing Neem The selected blocks are Sivakasi blessed with plantations in the farm lands. The Neem trees 151 ha under Neem, Vembakottai block is in available in the common lands like roadsides, possession of 126 ha, Virudhunagar block is poromboke lands, ponds, tanks etc. become occupied with 118 ha, Sattur block is having threatened due to its multifunctional uses and an area of 73 ha and the Kariapatti block is small timbers. Increased Brick Kilns in the having an area of 64 ha and hence these five city environment quite naturally provide a blocks were purposively chosen in the Second threat to Neem Plantations also and they were Stage as these blocks were enriched with extracted as fuel wood to the Brick Kiln. higher area under Neem plantations. Amidst all these threats, the farming community of Virudhunagar and In the Third Stage, different population of Thoothukkudi Districts had shown much Neem cultivating farmers was visible and interest in establishing these plantations in hence the researcher has resorted to the their farm lands with a 20 to 25 year rotation proportionate sampling with 10 per cent for period. Such a wonderful and multipurpose having quick survey. In this respect, around 20 Neem tree and its cultivation were influenced farmers whom have raised Neem plantations by certain factors. This study was specifically were selected by practicing proportionate initiated to address the factors which are sampling. influencing the Cultivation of Neem Trees particularly in Southern Tamil Nadu because Since our study is focusing on economic they are the leaders in Tamil Nadu in respect incentives associated with the Neem of establishing Neem plantations with the plantations, the importance of collection of objective of assessing the economic incentives Neem seeds become much more important to contributed by the trees. the researcher on account of sustainable output and hence the researcher has resorted the Design of the Study practice of choosing the Neem Seed Collectors (NSC) following simple random sampling In Tamil Nadu, only 5 districts stand above 100 technique in different villages under each ha of area under Neem tree. Among the 5 block and hence who ever are collecting the Districts, Virudhunagar and Thoothukkudi Neem seeds in the morning hours have been Districts stands first and second position contacted and are interviewed to assess the respectively. Virudhunagar District as it stands practices followed in Neem seed collection, first in respect of area under Neem, the researcher processing and sales to the retailing or 1694 Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2019) 8(11): 1693-1703 wholesaling units of both Virudhunagar and Similar approach is practiced by Sekhar Madurai Districts forming a total sample of (1995) and Rithambhara Singh during 2017. 100. These details are presented in Table 1. Since the study focuses on assessing the Operational and maintenance cost economic incentives associated with the Neem plantations and the factors which are After incurring the establishment cost, the farmer motivating the farmers to establish the Neem is required to make some more investments until plantations in a larger scale, the following the tree reaches the bearing stage. tools of analysis resorted to develop feasible information on Neem plantations which will Such costs are known as operational and be helpful to the other farmers in different maintenance cost mainly incurred for land zone will be in a position to practice the same. preparation, manures and manuring, channel and basin formation, fertilizer application, pesticide Tools of analysis use, irrigation and the human labor used for different operations to maintain the plantations Percentage analysis are accessed from different farm households having different age group of Neem plantations To analyze the economic incentives, one has in the study environment and are presented for to concentrate on annual costs involved in twenty years. respect of Neem plantations through appropriate structured questionnaire for Repeated questions were imposed to the farmer collecting the data. For that purpose, the on the vague answer and confirmed the data with questionnaire available with the regard to its validity. Comprehensive Scheme on Cost of Harvesting and distribution cost Cultivation of Principal Crops funded by Government of India and operated in the The harvesting and distribution cost which Department of Agricultural Economics was included harvesting cost, packing charges, also resorted to. grading charges, transportation charges, loading and unloading cost. Similar Cost analysis for neem methodology was practiced by Rithambhara Singh during the year 2017. In respect of cost analysis for Neem, the costs were classified into three different categories Benefit cost ratio viz. Establishment Cost; Operational and Maintenance Cost; Harvesting and Post- This is another indicator used to test the Harvest Management Cost. worthiness of investment. It is the ratio of sum of discounted net benefits to the sum of Establishment cost discounted capital costs. It is expressed as follows The establishment cost or the cost incurred in the zero-time period comprise rental value of land, cost of planting materials, cost of farm house or store house, expenditure on farm equipment, fencing and investment on planting Neem seedlings. The sum of all these Bn : Benefits realized in rupees per ha per costs are termed as Establishment Cost. annum (1-20 Years) 1695 Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2019) 8(11): 1693-1703 Cn : Costs incurred in rupees per ha per Factors influencing neem seed collection annum (0,1-20 Years) Neem seed collection activity was performed n : Number of years of investment by almost all age groups in the study area. One considered (0,1- 20 years) could assess the competition too while collecting the seeds. In this respect, something i : Discount Rate (12 Per Cent) is influencing all the farmers to collect the Neem seeds and hence the study has aimed at Net Present Value (NPV) assessing the factors influencing Neem seed collection. For that purpose, a Cobb-Douglass This means the present value of the net Production function was used to assess the benefits, obtained by deducting the total factors influencing the quantity of Neem seeds discounted cost stream from the total collected by the households and also their discounted stream of returns.