Medicinal Crop Production in Pakistan’s Agriculture: Economic Analysis, Performance and Challenges of Production of Ginger, Turmeric and Garlic

Abstract

Ginger, garlic and turmeric are in human use due to their medicinal importance, strong healing, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties (due to phenolic compounds) from the ancient times. Enhancing the product quality and market expansion need crop stability and performance evaluation. This research is planned to analyses the past performance of these three specialty crops on the basis of 19 years secondary data. The efficiency of the resources in these crops is an important aspect of the current research. To determine the time of rapid growth and reduced instability, as well as the impact of coordinated research and innovative green technologies, the gathered data was divided into a few decades and studied accordingly. Cuddy-Della Valle Instability index was applied to estimate instability in relation to production area and yield. Utilizing the Cuddy-Della Valle instability index for series following a time trend and the coefficient of variation for no-time trend series, the amount of risk in area, production, and yield was calculated. Growth rate of these crops were measured using compound annual growth rate. Results indicated overall significant fluctuation in instability index and growth rate. Further regression for percentage growth rate and instability index was calculated by applying Cuddy-Della Valle index which showed positive and negative effect of growth rate and performance instability under the area and yield of this medicinal crop which indicate their stability level in this time series data.