Author(s):

Amalendu Kumar

Abstract: In India betel vine is a commercial crop grown under fifty thousand hectares of land. The main betel vine producing states of the country are Karnataka (18%), Orissa and Tamilnadu (11% each), Assam & Bengal (6%each) and Bihar (7%). This crop annually generate income to the tune of rupees 10 thousand million and create about 2 million employment. In Bihar it has been grown under three to four thousand hectares in a special construction (BAREJA) by a single cast (BARAI). The study was conducted in Bhagalpur and Visalia district of Bihar on the basis of higher area. On the same basis from Bhagalpur district two blocks namely Kahalgaon and Pirpainti & from Vaishali district two blocks namely Bidupur and Hazipur were selected for in depth study. From each block one village was selected and nearly 15 percent of betel vine growers from each village formed the sample size of the study. Analysis reveals that on an average 833 labour days per hectare were created in cultivation of the crop. The share of family labour at the overall level 61.35% and hired labour 38.65 %. Out of the total human labour engaged 86.19% were male and 13.81% were female. This has been attributed to the social belief and religious factors for low participation of female in the activities. The major labour utilizing operations were harvesting, packaging and maintenance which constitute about 49.42 %. Due to lack of knowledge growers were not able to make optimum number of labours utilization in their farm and females labours in the activities. The study suggests for establishment of linkages between the growers, extension workers and research person ale, so that employment generations could be increase in general and female participation in particular.

Pages: 397-400  |  1496 Views  382 Downloads

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