Accessing the socio-economic grade of menthol growers in India: Shifting from traditional farming to income based farming

The Mentha arvensis is an important essential oil bearing plant and widely used in food, flavour, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Amongst the Aromatic crops, mentha is important crop as India is the largest producer, consumer as well as exporter of mentha. The present study was conducted in Rampur district of Uttar Pradesh with the objective to find out socio-economic condition of farmers in mentha cultivation. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select blocks, villages and the respondents from the four villages of two blocks of Rampur district. The results revealed that majority of mentha growing farmers were in the middle age group (31–50 years) at aggregate level. Average family size at aggregate level was 5.01. The majority of the farmers were educated (86.67). The major investment item was tractor, which on aggregate level covers 47.81 per cent of total investment. Farm building and storage structure contributes 29.18 per cent at aggregate level.