International Journal of Horticulture, 2017, Vol.7, No.30, 275-287
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Table 4 Establishment Cost for Perennial Moringa Plantations
SI. No
Cost Components
Thoothukkudi
Tiruppur
In Rs/Ha
Per Cent
In Rs/Ha.
Per Cent
01.
Ploughing and Preparation of Land
3230.98
05.12
3705.00
06.19
02.
Digging of Pits
3140.49
04.98
3250.00
05.43
03.
Fencing Charges
19450.50
30.83
18466.91
30.86
04.
Formation of Irrigation Channels
950.00
01.51
850.00
01.42
05.
Cost of Plant Material including Transportation 6350.00
10.07
6446.09
10.77
06.
Cost of Manure
2242.00
03.55
2346.21
03.92
07.
Cost of Filling of Pits, Manuring and Planting
1438.56
02.28
1533.83
02.56
08.
Cost of Irrigation including Labour
3235.60
05.13
3483.34
05.82
09.
Plant Protection Charges while Planting of
Limb Cuttings
428.90
00.68
386.77
00.65
10.
Rental Value of Land
22530.58
35.72
19302.30
32.25
11.
Land Cess and Taxes
60.00
00.10
60.00
00.10
12
Total Establishment Cost
63057.61
100.00
59830.45
100.00
Table 4 revealed that the establishment cost incurred for Moringa in Tiruppur District has commanded low cost
when compared to Thoothukkudi District. Among the different constituent costs under establishment, the rental
value of land and the fencing charges have commanded more than 60 per cent to the total establishment cost.
The total establishment cost of Moringa in Thoothukkudi District is arrived at Rs 63058 and Rs 59830 in respect
of Tiruppur District. The cost of plant material alone accounted for around 10 per cent to the total establishment cost
in both of the districts. From that one could infer that the rental value of land, fencing charges and planting material
cost are the major items under establishment cost. The cost of irrigation arrangements during the initial period is
accounted for around 5 per cent to the total establishment cost.
6.2.2 Annual maintenance cost involved in Moringa plantations
After incurring the initial investment on establishing the Moringa plantations, the farmer is required to make
some of the following investments until the tree reaches the bearing stage. Such costs are known as operational or
maintenance costs and are mainly incurred for land preparation, fertilizer application, pesticide spraying, irrigation
and manuring the plantations with farm yard manure etc. The analysis of the collected data from the samples revealed
that the total investment on the Moringa plantations until getting the yield was averaged and are presented as average
maintenance cost up to 3 years; average maintenance cost up to 7 years and average maintenance cost up to the 10
th
year of maintenance and designated as maturing phase, yielding phase, and economically yielding phase respectively.
Similar approach was practiced by Ritambhara Singh et al. during 2017. The details are analyzed and presented in
Table 5.
Table 5 revealed that annual maintenance cost during different phases of Moringa plantation is found to be 59 per
cent and the total annual harvesting cost is arrived at 41 per cent to the total maintenance cost. It revealed that the
farmers in Thoothukkudi region is capable of applying same input cost and it did not differ between the maturing
phase, yielding phase and the economically yielding phase leaving absolute difference. The absolute difference in
the maintenance cost is comparatively higher in the initial stages of maintenance and during the economically
yielding stages. It might be due to the healthy establishment of the plantation during the initial stages will
withstand some environmental distress like drought and disease. During the economically yielding stage, the
increase in cost is visible due to the interest of getting the continuous yield increase in respect of Moringa fresh
vegetable pods. In this respect, the annual maintenance cost that are incurred by the farmers of Tiruppur District
is much important and the details are analyzed and the results are presented in Table 6.
