Organic Large Cardamom Farming in Longleng District: Promoting Growth with Poverty Reduction

Organic Large Cardamom Farming in Longleng District: Promoting Growth with Poverty Reduction

Longleng, the smallest and poorest district of Nagaland, situated in the North-Eastern region bordering towards Myanmar is gradually becoming the hub of large cardamom (AmomumsubulatumRoxb)production.At the present time, large cardamomcultivation has become one of the foundation economies and farmers were motivated for cultivation of large cardamom by various governmental agency like Agriculture Technology Management Agency, Horticulture department, Agriculture department and Krishi Vigyan Kendra and they are shifting their focus from growing paddy to large cardamom as the aforesaid agencies provide proper training and ad rem suggestions to the farmers.Most of the farmers living in the region are following traditional methods for cultivation, which are eco-friendly, less expensive due to utilization of local resources, knowledge and labour. Research survey was conducted in Yongam, Nian, Yongnyah and Pongo village in 2017-18. A total of 80 respondents i.e., large cardamom growers were selected using stratified random sampling technique. Additionally, two local traders were interviewed to know various details regarding marketing of large cardamom. The paper investigates the size of landholding, production, productivity, cost and net return. The result shows higher BCR for large acres of areas as 1.25, 1.96, 3.13 and 3.33. Cobb-Douglas production function exhibits diminishing return to scale. To analyze the efficiency of organic large cardamom farming, SWOT analysis was carried out. The study pointed out that the cardamom farming could be a highly profitable and market-oriented enterprise in Longleng. It also points out the problems faced by the cardamom growers and finally suggests policy implication.

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