Economic Assessment of Black Pepper under Hilly Zone Multi-storyed Ecosystem of Karnataka, India

India is one of the largest producers, exporters and consumers of spices across the world. At global market India spices are in high demand due its medicinal and culinary value. Major exported spices from India were turmeric, chilli, black pepper, mint products, cumin, cardamom, garlic, curry paste and spice oils etc. Among these spices the share of black pepper is noticeable and which is grown abundantly in hilly zone multi-storyed ecosystem of Karnataka. There is a lack of understanding the economics of the crop and constraints faced by the hilly region farmers to cultivate black pepper. Hence, the study analyses the socio economic status, livelihood sustainability of the farmers, processing practices and constraints faced by the black pepper cultivators in hilly zone of Karnataka by using primary data. The selected farmers were classified based on their income levels and garett’s ranking technique was followed to prioritize the constraintsas perceived by the farmers. The study found that majority of the farmers who cultivate black pepper under multi-storyed cropping system were low income group farmers. In this region still black pepper is mainly cultivated by adopting traditional practices, hence expenditure on farm yard manure was the major item for both establishment and annual maintenance costs. Timely non availability of labours and high wage rates were identified as larger impacting constraints. The study concludes that there is a huge scope for mechanization of harvesting and other labour intensive functions to facilitate farmers which impact positively on black pepper economics and the investigation suggests for the integrating of markets with necessary market intelligence services to the gross root levels in the black pepper ecosystem in Karnataka to minimize higher price volatility.