Socio-Economic Status of Tomato Growers in Madurai District of Tamil Nadu

Tomato is one of the most vital vegetable crop which is cultivated for its fleshy fruit and considered as vital commercial and dietary vegetable. Tamil Nadu stands twelfth place in the area and production of tomato. Even though the production is high, the farmers are struggling a lot to come up well to meet out the demand of growing population. In this connection, the socioeconomic characteristics of tomato growers will give a picture of their characteristics towards tomato cultivation. Hence, the study was conducted in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu with 90 tomato growers. The structured interview schedule is used for collecting data. The statistical tools such as mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage analysis were used. From the findings, it is found that majority of the respondents are middle aged (40.00%) and primary and middle school education (45.56%) and having one to two acre of land with more than twenty years of experience. They had below Rs.50,000 as annual income. They had medium information source utilization, economic motivation, scientific orientation and innovativeness and taking joint decision with family members, neighbours and relatives.


INTRODUCTION
Tomato is considered as a major vegetable crop. It is largely cultivated and consuming crop in the world. It is a good source of phytochemical lycopene and vitamin-c.
Among all vegetables, tomato is the most demandable crop, because they are generally used for salads and ingredients for various prepared dishes and pickle making.
Tamil Nadu stands twelfth place in the area and production (Horticulture statistics at a Glance, 2018). Even though the production is high, the farmers are struggling a lot to come up well.
In spite of our production is high, productivity is lower. It may be due to various reasons such as lack of awareness, low knowledge, less availability of resources, less resource utilization behavior, low level of contact with extension officials among the farmers etc., Technology and communication pattern are the key elements in the growth and development of communities that predominantly depend on agriculture. If the communication about new varieties, technologies or information about agriculture from one farmer to other farmer and group of farmers is proper, then the production and productivity will be higher and automatically leads to first position in vegetable production and productivity. Hence, there is a need to study the socio-economic characteristics of the farmers towards tomato cultivation practices.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A study was conducted in Panniyan and Kannanur villages of Chellampatti block of Madurai district. The present study was confined to ex-post facto research design. Being a vegetable belt, 90 tomato growers were selected randomly from two villages for the study. The data was collected for this study by interview schedule. The collected data were analysed, tabulated and interpretated. The statistical tools were used such as mean, standard deviation, frequency and percentage analysis.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The findings of this study have been presented in the Table 1. From the Table 1, it was found that majority of the farmers were middle age farmers (40.00%) followed by old age farmers (37.78%). The main reason is that the study area is a vegetable belt and hence majority of the participants involved in tomato cultivation from their childhood onwards. 35.56 per cent belonged to primary school education followed by middle school education (30.00%). Lack of educational institutions in the study area for higher studies might be the possible reasons for majority under primary and middle school education. Most of the parents expressed that if their children worked in vegetable cultivation, the income and the family status will be increased. Hence, they were not allowing their children for higher studies. 47.77 per cent were having less than one acre of land. Most of the farmers were cultivating tomato by marginal and small farmers and as agricultural labours. Fragmentation of traditional land holdings among relatives over a period of time might be the reason for the medium to low level of land holdings. 37.78 per cent belonged to medium level of innovativeness. Medium level innovativeness might be due to the motivation given by progressive farmers in the study, relative advantage of high yielding varieties, protray nursery etc.
33.33 per cent have taken decision in consultation with family members, neighbours and relatives followed by consultation with private consultants and input dealers (26.67%). Most of the respondents taking decision in consultation with their family members. Because the respondents felt that the family and relations are very supportive for the tomato and vegetable cultivation and even if they face any loss. Further, private consultant and input dealer and progressive farmers were the driving force for taking decision on variety selection, fertilizer and pesticide application, quantity and time of application.

CONCLUSION
From the findings , it is concluded that majority of the respondents are middle aged (40.00%) and primary and middle school education (45.56%) and having one to two acre of land with more than twenty years of experience.
They had below Rs.50,000 as annual income. They had medium information source utilization, economic motivation, scientific orientation and innovativeness and taking joint decision with family members, neighbours and relatives. It may due to the various reasons such as lack of awareness, less knowledge, rare contact with extension officials, less availability of resources, lack of information sharing behaviour. Hence, different exposure on tomato cultivation technologies has to be given to the farmers to improve their technical knowledge and frequent contact of extension officials and scientists will influence the farmers, socio-personal characteristics which in turn increase the yield and income of the farmers in order to meet the growing demand of vegetables.
So extension officials should make effort to improve the credibility of Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Non-Governmental Oraganisation and State Agricultural Universities. It will act as a grass root for adopting the technologies.