Socio-economic Characteristics and Cropping Pattern of Custard Apple Grower in Maharashtra

In all 60 custard apple growers were randomly selected from twelve villages of two tehsils of Aurangabad district for the year 2010-2011. Cross sectional data were collected from custard apple growers with the help of pretested schedule by personal interview method. Regression coefficients with respect to socio-economic characteristics were obtained through linear regression analysis. The mean values of socio-economic characteristics were also estimated in arithmetic form. The result revealed that educational level showed highly significant effect on custard apple productivity with regression coefficient of 4.54 with mean value of educational level was 2.36 scores. In next order, regression coefficient of land holding was also highly significant (1.59) while mean value of land holding was 3.11 hectares. Regression coefficient of milch animal was 3.66 while mean value of milch animal was 2.65 numbers. Age of custard apple grower, family size and investment on irrigation structure were found nonsignificant characteristics. Regarding cropping pattern, gross cropped area was 3.11 hectares. It was observed that proportionate share of cereal crops was the highest as 31.51 per cent followed by cash crops (24.43 %), fruit crop (17.04 %), pulse crops (13.51 %) and oilseed crops (13.51 %). The net sown area was 2.59 hectares and double cropped area was 0.52 hectares. Cropping intensity was found to be 120.08 per cent.