Profitability of arecanut cultivation in the Kasaragod district in Kerala

Abstract

A unique feature of Kerala's agriculture in general and Kasaragod district in particular is that the cropping pattern has shifted in favour of commercial crops. In this shift, plantation crops increased considerably. Arecanut is an important commercial crop in the Kasaragod district of Kerala. During the past three decades, the arecanut cultivation underwent significant increase in area and production due to area effect and the yield effect. The input wise distribution of cost of arecanut by size of farm did not indicate any specific relation between the total cost of cultivation and the size of farm. Yield per hectare of arecanut indicated inverse relation with the size of farm. Estimating costs and returns of arecanut cultivation in Kasaragod in terms of PBP, IRR, NPV and BCR revealed that arecanut cultivation is profitable in the district. The study also revealed that profitability of arecanut is inversely related to the size of arecanut garden.