Sustainable cashew farming for livelihood security of the farmers in Ariyalur District, Tamil Nadu

Abstract

India is the largest area holder of this crop and stands 2nd in production next to Vietnam. Cashew nut is being cultivated in Tamil Nadu in 142 thousand hectares with annual cashew production of 70000 tonnes during 2016-17. In Tamil Nadu, the Ariyalur district has highly diverse agro-climatic conditions and most backward peoples, which grant the potential for a remarkable agricultural production of a great diversity of crops. The traditional food crops such as paddy, groundnuts and sorghum were predominant and met the livelihood and food security of the family. Later these crops have been replaced by a single cash crop namely Cashew nut. The Kodomillet was dominated occupied areas 31.27 per cent during 80s. However, there was a drastic fall thereafter and in 1987-88 it fell to 25.17 per cent. The area under total cereals and millets also declined drastically due to the shift towards cashew crop. The proportion of area under cashew increased from 1.95 per cent in 1970-71 to 2.55 per cent in 1980-81, 12.36 per cent in 1990-91, 32.5 per cent in 2000-2001, 41.1 per cent in 2010-11 and 45.54 per cent in 2016-17. Similarly, a significant area maintain in the prominence of pulses, oil seeds. It was found that an average income from traditional crops during 2016-17 is Rs.16, 275 whereas, single cashew crop was Rs.28,625/year/acre during same year. An additional income of Rs. 25,520/year/acre reaped by the cashew growing farmers and it certainly resulted in improved livelihood and socio-economic condition of cashew farmers when compared with the farmers growing traditional crops.