Economics of Chilli Cultivation in Wokha District of Nagaland, India

The present research study was conducted in Wokha district of Nagaland. The study comprises of 60 sample farmers selected by following a multi stage stratified random sampling technique. Socio economic status of the chilli growers in the study area reveals a literacy percentage of 95.74 percent and the average family size of chilli growers in the study area was found to be 4.35. Earners constitute about 33.33 percent of the total sample population of the working population, 58.15 percent of the sampled respondent depends on agricultural and allied activities as their main occupation. From the study on economic analysis of chilli cultivation revealed that on an average per hectare total cost of chilli cultivation was ₹.1,38,596.67 with a gross income of ₹.3,00,440.00. The average yield of chilli was found to be 75.00 q per ha. Considering the prevailing price of chilli in the study area which is ₹.4,000.00 per q the gross income was found that the average net return from chilli cultivation ₹.1,52 888.66. Out of the total cost, the share of variable cost and fixed cost constitute 93.59 percent and 6.41 percent respectively. whereas the benefit cost ratio was found out to be 2.24. Current Agriculture Research Journal www.agriculturejournal.org ISSN: 2347-4688, Vol. 8, No.(1) 2020, pg. 46-51 CONTACT Nchumthung Murry nch.murry@gmail.com Department of Agricultural EconomicsNagaland University, SASRD, Medziphema, Nagaland. © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Enviro Research Publishers. This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons license: Attribution 4.0 International (CC-BY). Doi: 10.12944/CARJ.8.1.08 Article History Received: 8 January 020 Accepted: 27 January 2020


Introduction
Chilli (Capsicum annum L.) is one of the important commercial crops of India. Chilli or hot pepper is a tropical vegetable as well as spice crop commonly used throughout the world as spice for its pungency and red colour from ripe and dried fruits and also for pungency and flavour from green fruits. 1 Chilli is indigenous to South America and was first cultivated around 7000-6000 BC. By the turn of 15 th century, when Spanish and Portuguese discovered South America, it was widely cultivated. Due to distinct type variability available in the North-Eastern states, it is assumed that Christian missionaries directly introduced capsicum into North East India from South America. 2 Major chilli producing and exporting states in India includes viz., Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan accounting for more than 80.00 percent of the total area and production. The state of Andhra Pradesh is the leading producer of chilli both in area and production contributing on an average of 25.00 percent of the total area and as high as 40.00-50.00 percent of the total production. 3 India has a huge comparative advantage in growing and export of chilli, thus this potential can be realised through initiatives of the government in facilitating the farmers and traders by means of developing transport facilities and other inputs in the process of marketing. 4 The States in the North Eastern region have been producing substantial quantities of fruits and vegetables, which have considerable potential for exports to the international markets. As per estimates of North Eastern Council, the region produces 23.44 lakh tonnes of fruits in 4.87 lakh ha area and 1.22 lakh tonnes of spices like turmeric, ginger, onion and chillies. Nagaland has the unique characteristic of highest size of operational holdings at 6.8 ha, which is higher than the Northeast regional average of 1.59 ha and also of the all-India level 1.6 ha. Therefore, Government as well as local inhabitants should get more attention for implementation the cultivation of these crops, which may generate more income as well as employment with minimum investment of input, and chilli cultivation is one of them, therefore with the specific objective to analysis economics of chilli cultivation the present study has been proposed.

Materials and Methods
The present study was conducted related to economics of chilli cultivation in Wokha district of Nagaland, India. In the study local and land race varieties of chilli growen in the study area was considered as most of the farmers grows local and land race varieties. In Wokha District of Nagaland out of total five Rural Development Blocks, two R.D. Blocks viz; Wozhuro-Ralan and Wokha were selected for the present study because of the fact that a large number rural population engaged in of chilli cultivation in the region. Two villages from each block were selected randomly which and from each village 15 respondents were drawn which comprises of 60 numbers of total respondent for the detailed study. In order to have representative sample from each village a sample of 15 respondents was drawn randomly from each villages. This will result in selection of 60 respondents from 4 villages. The distribution of total respondents based on the size group of land holding were classified as given below.

Group
Land The primary data was collected through pre-tested and pre-structured schedules and questionnaires specifically designed for this study. In order to analyse the economics of chilli cultivation in Wokha District of Nagaland, India, different cost concept applied in the field of farm management studies in terms of variables and fixed cost were employed. These are discussed below:

Results and Discussion
In order to obtain conclusive results and scientific interpretation from the study, the data collected were subjected to various economic and farm management analytical tools and techniques. The findings from the study on economic analysis of chilli cultivation in Wokha district of Nagaland, India are presented as below.

Economics of Chilli Production Cost of Chilli Production Per Hectare Across Various Size Group
The cost of production includes in the study takes into account inputs cost like seed cost, human labour, marketing and transportation cost, interest on working capital, rental value of land at the prevailing rate in study area, deprecation on implements and interest on owned fixed assets. The estimate of per hectare cost of chilli cultivation on sample respondents in the study area is presented in Table 1.

Gross Income
The average yield of chilli per hectare was found to be 75.00 q, 74.76 q and 75.57 q for marginal, small and medium group of farmers respectively. Considering the prevailing price of chilli in the study area which is ₹.4000.00 per q the gross income was found to be ₹.3,00,000.00, ₹. .00. Thus it shows that the cost of production increased with increase in farm size. The average yield of chilli per hectare in the study area was found to be 75.00 q, 74.76 q and 75.57 q for marginal, small and medium group of farmers respectively. Considering the prevailing price of chilli in the study area which is ₹.4,000.00 per q the gross income was found to be ₹.3,00,000.00, ₹.2,99,040.00 and ₹.3,02,280.00 for marginal, small and medium group of farmers respectively. The average yield in the study area was found out to be 75.11q with a gross income of ₹.3,00,440.00 and with an average net return of ₹.1,47,892.00. The overall benefit cost ratio was found out to be 2.39 which shows good return from the chilli cultivation.
participants covered under the study for providing those valuable data and information.

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Conflict of Interest
There is no conflicts of interest associated with this publication.

Author Statement
This manuscript is an original research work and has not been published or submitted in any other journal.

Ethical Approval
This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.