Assessment of Influential Factors for Farmers towards Arecanut (Areca catechu) Cultivation in Tamil Nadu

Abstract

In India, one of the most important cash crops is Arecanut (Areca catechu), which is referred to as a traditional medicine in Indian Ayurveda texts. India ranks first in area and production of arecanut, accounting for 54.07 per cent of its world production. In Tamil Nadu arecanut is cultivated in 6,884 ha of area with 35% area is under Salem district with a sample size of 120 arecanut farmers was selected by proportionate random sampling technique. Kaiser Meyer Olkin Measures the sampling adequacy, for the present study, the value was 0.717, which signifies the sample is adequate and middling as used by most scientists. Bartlett’s test of sphericity is 676.687, while the significance is 0.000,which implies the variables are adequate for the study. Five factors were extracted from the sixteen components with Eigen values and factor loadings witha total variance of 64.95 per cent. The functional factor had high variance of 18.32% with seven-factor loadings, cognizance factors with 15.30% variance with six-factor loadings followed by empirical factor with 15.12% variance for three-factor loadings, household factor having variance of 8.48% with two-factor loadings and decisive factor having variance of 7.71% with three-factor loadings. This study suggests promoting improved methods of cultivation at the farm level to increase household income and for expansion of arecanut areas.