Economic Utilisation of Areca Leaf Sheaths for Rural Livelihood

The enormous supply of areca leaf sheaths coupled with raising consciousness among society towards usage of eco-friendly products have paved a way for emergence of rural based areca leaf product manufacturing units. Areca growers reaped net profit of Rs.7120 per acre by selling leaf sheaths to manufacturing units. The industry has generated employment ranging from 2 labourers in very small units to 242 labourers in very large units per unit per annum depending upon the size of the industry. The manufacturers reaped net returns ranging from 0.65 lakh in very small units to 121.9 lakhs in very large units. The capital budgeting analysis indicated wealth generation of Rs. 0.72 lakhs in very small units and Rs. 59.09 crores in very large units with the annual rate of return of 17 and 88 per cent, respectively, indicating economic worthwhileness of areca leaf products manufacturing units. It is noteworthy that very large units repaid the initial investment in 0.13 years while others took more than one year. The data envelopment analysis indicated that very small, small and very large units were found to be cost inefficient with efficiency scoring of 0.5, 0.79 and 0.72, respectively. It was evident from the conjoint analysis that the consumer preference was influenced by quality parameters like desired dimensions, portability, ecofriendly nature and price of leaf products. There exists vast scope for development of this vital industry with potential supply of raw materials at 144 crore leaf sheaths produced in the state per annum. Hence, it is suggested that Government should encourage such agro based rural industries for development of rural economy.