AN ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF PAPAYA PRODUCTION IN SHIKARIPURA TALUK KARNATAKA

Papaya Cultivation in India comprises both traditional and modern fruits crops. Most traditional fruits s are grown in open fields while modern fruits s are grown under protected conditions. The traditional fruits s grown in the open include mango, banana, apple, orange, Guava, Sapota, water melon, Apricots, etc. A large number of small and marginal farmers as well as small traders (forming the unorganized sector) are eking out a living in the sector compared to papaya Cultivation. The traditional fruits s is grown in all districts of the state. The traditional papaya Cultivation is still predominant in the state in terms of area and production. However, there are a few exceptions to this general practice in Karnataka. For instance, papaya are also grown by small and marginal farmers under open conditions, while traditional fruits s like grapes are grown by large growers under poly-house conditions. The present study is focused on the An Economic Analysis of Papaya Production in Shikaripura Taluk, Karnataka. The study is intended to provide a database on the costs, returns, profitability and export prospects as well as problems of Papaya Cultivation in Karnataka, which could be of great use for professionals, academicians, policy makers and stakeholders including financial institutions. Even though the topic under study belongs to agriculture geography in nature but it was tried to attempt with applied geographical approach. Much work has been done on land horticulture development but the towards the development of land farming in general remains neglected and untested. The literature search also revealed that there are very few research studies exclusively on the geographical aspects of cultivation. The researchers and also farmers unanimously agree that papaya is an ideal crop for any region. It indicates some correlation between the physical factors and fruit crop. In this view, present work tries to examine how geographical conditions of the study area are suitable for this crop. A significant shift towards papaya cultivation was evident with the rapid growth in area under this fruit crop. Since the papaya crop provided an excellent opportunities in raising the income of farmers even in dry tracts. In this context, the cost benefit ratio for small, medium and large holdings was ascertained by collecting the primary data at the farm levels. In addition, the impact of biotic and abiotic factors viz. soil, altitude, variety, cropping season and age of orchards in determining the yield, cost and return structure of papaya crop was examined. Fruit farming clears that horticultural production, by nature is location specific because of its optimum climatic requirements. Here it differs from the usual agricultural practices. The papaya crop is also the native of Mediterranean climate. Therefore, it was interesting to find out the nature of climatic conditions that made it possible to cultivate papayas in the study area. Equally, other factors namely socio-economic, technological and government policies need to understand in detail. Since, all those had supported to emerge papaya crop as a successful enterprise