Citrus farming in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra: An analysis of present status and grassroot constraints

Maharashtra is India’s second largest producer of fruit crop and citrus ranks second among all fruits farmed in the state covering 210.66 thousand hectares area and 1876.89 thousand tonnes production in 2020-21. Four important citrus producing districts in Maharashtra, namely Nagpur, Amravati, Wardha and Akola were purposefully selected to study the status of citrus cultivation in Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, the prime citrus belt of Central India. As respondents, 150 citrus growers were randomly selected from each district, making a total sample size of 600. Akola turned out to be the acid lime hub with average individual orchard size of 2.84 acres. Nagpur farmers had an average orchard size of 1.81 acres, 1.42 acres and 0.06 acre of mandarin, sweet orange and acid lime, respectively, whereas these numbers in Wardha were 3.07 and 0.73 acres and in Amravati were 3.05 and 0.28 acre for mandarin and sweet orange, respectively. The average orchard size under acid lime in Wardha and Amravati was negligible. Constraints faced by citrus growers were studied district wise. Farmers in Nagpur (36%), Wardha (33.3%), Amravati (22.6%) and Akola (16%) indicated price unpredictability as the most severe constraint, indicating that citrus cultivation does not turn out to be remunerative every year due to market gluts and post-harvest losses in particular. Along with price uncertainty, 16 per cent of farmers in Akola described wild animal/bird attacks in citrus groves as the most severe problem. There were a total of 15 constraints identified, with respondents reporting the most severe one in their district. The constraints were also categorized as direct and indirect and then ranked using the Garrett ranking technique, which revealed that the most relevant direct and indirect constraints were Phytophthora incidence and price uncertainty, respectively. The authors also emphasize the importance of frontline extension and governmental machinery in assisting citrus farmers confronting these obstacles.