Trend and Seasonal Variation in Mutton Prices of Tamil Nadu State, India

Abstract
A study was under taken to analyze the trend and seasonal variations in mutton prices in four major consumption centers of Tamil Nadu. The data on monthly mutton prices for the period from April 1990 to March 2012 were collected from various secondary sources. The trend in mutton prices were analyzed by simple linear regression technique. The mutton price trend equation fitted showed that the price of mutton per kilogram hiked at the rate of 3.117 rupees in Chennai, 3.828 rupees in Madurai, 3.027 rupees in Coimbatore, 3.768 rupees in Trichy every month. The reason for this trend in mutton price might be due to the increasing demand driven by growing population pressure and decline in supply caused by factor like failure in disease prevention and decrease in grazing land availability. The seasonal variation in mutton prices were analyzed by centered moving average method and the result of the analysis showed that the monthly mutton price index was observed to be minimum during the month of July in Chennai and Trichy, September and December in Madurai and Coimbatore respectively. The seasonal mutton price index was found to be the highest during the month of January in Madurai and Trichy, December and March in Chennai and Coimbatore respectively. The reason for the non-uniformity in mutton prices might be due to the unorganized nature of mutton marketing which leaves the middlemen and other private players to behave differently in fixing their marketing cost and marketing margin.
Description
TNV_IJAEM_2014_4(1)29-33
Keywords
Veterinary Science
Citation