International Journal of Graduate Research and Review

27-31

Authors: Samjhana Koirala, Achyut Gaire, T. Bhandari

Production and productivity of citrus has been decreased drastically in last few years in Nepal as well as in Lamjung district. The national production of citrus and productive area was 263,710Mt and 23,607 ha respectively in 2010/11 while that of 216,188Mt and 23,645ha in 2012/13. Similarly, the productive area and production of citrus in Lamjung was 1,542 ha and 16,893Mt in 2011/12 respectively while it was 578 ha and 4,657 Mt in 2015/16. Thus, this study aimed at analyzing the socioeconomic factors affecting citrus production by investigating major variables such as the total area under citrus cultivation, cropping pattern, literacy of household head, irrigation, pesticides, subsidies, and production related problems. With the selection of 50 farmers purposively, the household survey was conducted with semi-structured questionnaires in Tarkughat, Chandreshwor, Bhoteoodar, Chitti and Duradanda VDCs and interview schedule was conducted during January- February 2016. The result revealed that 24% of the total area was under sole cropping pattern while remaining area was under mixed cropping with coffee and vegetables. Mandarin spp. was found to be exclusively cultivated among citrus. 53% of the total area under citrus cultivation was managed by grower having the literacy equivalent to secondary level or below. 88% of the variability of independent variables (number of plant giving fruits, total number of citrus plant, irrigation, pesticides, production-related problems, area under citrus) had a significant effect on citrus production while 12% of the variability had a random effect on the production at 5% level of significance. The mean production was found to be18.84quintals in 2012 while that of 10.35 quintals in 2016. This variation on citrus production was found due to various production related problems .73% of the total area under citrus had been suffered by greening disease while 26% of the area was suffered by both input management problem and citrus greening resulting into a dead citrus plants. Thus, this drastic decreased in production caused the decline in production and cessation of citrus marketing in Lamjung. Through this survey, it was concluded that that citrus production has been decreasing drastically in present years mainly due to citrus greening disease, different orchard managemental problems and other socio-economic factors adversely affecting the marketing. This has been limiting the source of income of farmers of Lamjung.