Akreeti Thakur

Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur

Email of corresponding author: connectakreeti10@gmail.com

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Abstract:
Rubber tree is important economic crop in eastern terai, Nepal. Jhapa district is one of the major source of rubber plantation because of its climatic suitability. The study was conducted in response of need to have a thorough over-view of rubber farming in Jhapa district. This study aimed to assess the socio-economic condition of rubber growing farmers in Jhapa district. A total of 50 farmers were selected using purposive random sampling technique from the sampling frame prepared by rubber zone Jhapa and interviewed with pre-tested semi-structured interview. Descriptive statistics was used for data analysis using SPSS and MS-Excel. The results showed that most of the respondents were male (88%), belonged to economically active population (86%). Most of them were primarily engaged in agriculture with an average rubber area of 1.87ha. Majority of total farm size was occupied by rubber plantation (63%) and contributed nearly half (48%) in the total household income. The initial investment of the rubber orchard for one ha area was calculated Rs 2,13,370 and material cost was highest among the expenditure (38.16% ). The feasibility analysis showed the B:C ratio 2.4, NPV Rs 17,19,813, 15% IRR showing the high profitability and sustainability of the enterprise. Most of the farmer (60%) were satisfied from the cultivation and half of them (52%) were willing to expand their area stating profitability (0.9) to be the most influential reason for the decision. Wind lodging (0.86) was found to be the most serious problem in rubber farming followed by inefficient market (0.77).

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