Constraints Faced by Officials and Farmers in Implementing Vegetable Development Programme

Kerala is a state with invariant demand for vegetables for home consumption. But the production of vegetables in the state is very low when compared to other states, which makes it a consumer state for vegetables. To meet this production insufficiency, Govt. of Kerala launched Vegetable Development Programme (VDP) in the year 2012. The present study entitled “Constraints faced by officials and farmers in implementing Vegetable Development Programme” was carried out in the Malappuram district of Kerala. Untimely sanction of the subsidy, reluctance of youngsters to participate in VDP, and lack of supporting staff were reported as the significant constraints faced by agri officials while implementing the program. Whereas the significant constraints faced by the farmers were stated as high labor costs followed by price fluctuations of the products and problems in marketing the product the farmer.

Vegetable farmers face a lot of constraints not only in the production phase but also in their marketing.

However the major constraint among them was the rising labour cost.

The major constraints experienced by the implementing officials were untimely sanctioning of subsidy and staff shortage.

Schemes and subsidies should be implemented based on their needs and suitability in different localities\

Co-ordination between extension officials and farmers must be strengthened for proper technology transfer to uplift vegetable cultivation.