Producer's Share In The Consumer Rupee And Unit Cost Returns For Grape And 42 Pomegranate Marketing In Bijapur District

A prosperous agriculture sector is critical for the sustained growth of the Indian economy and horticulture is a part of agriculture. India is the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, next to China. Its share in the world's production of fruits is 11 % and vegetables 7%. The production of fruits in India is more than 43.00 million tons and that of vegetables is more than 88.62 million tons. Horticulture from an area of just 8.5% of the total area under agriculture is estimated to contribute over 24.5% to the agriculture GDP oflndia. To achieve a sustained growth in this all important sector, the horticulture farmers who form the backbone of the sector should be able to gain economic advantages through horticulture farming. The present study intends to estimate the producer's share in the consumer rupee and the unit cost returns for both grape and pomegranate cultivation in the district of Bijapur in Karnataka state. The data for the study was collected from 168 horticulture farmers representing smalI, medium and large farmers and also representing all the taluks in Bijapur district using stratified random sampling technique. An Interview schedule was personally administered to the sample horticultural farmers to collect the data. The data so collected is analyzed, interpreted and presented in the paper.