Vegetable seed marketing in Belgaum district: an analysis of market structure and farmers’ preferences
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Date
2007
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Publisher
UAS, Dharwad
Abstract
In India, agriculture contributes around 21 per cent to the grass domestic product
while providing employment to around 60 per cent to country’s work force. Karnataka is one
of the major states in the production of vegetables in South India, with an area of 3.67 lakh
hectares under vegetable production, producing 44.94 tonnes of vegetables. Belgaum is the
second largest district in the state in terms of both area (35,554 ha) and production (4,59,724
tonnes) of vegetables next only to Kolar district, which has an area of 40,680 ha with a
production of 7,24,927 tonnes, followed by Dharwad, Bagalkot, Shimoga, Bijapur and others.
The important taluks growing vegetables in the district include Khanpur, Belgaum
and Saundatti. To satisfy the continuous demand for vegetable seeds by the farmers, several
seed companies in the corporate sector are supplying seeds in the district. Some of the
important companies, which supply seeds for this region include Namadari seeds Pvt. Ltd.,
Seminis Seeds Pvt. Ltd, Golden Seeds Pvt. Ltd, Shri Ram Bioseed genetics India Ltd.,
Sungrow, J. K. Seeds, Indo America hybrid seeds and Bejosheethal Pvt. Ltd.
For the study, primary data were collected for eliciting the opinions of farmer
respondents and vegetable seed dealers using pre-tested and well structured questionnaires.
The trend in area and production of vegetables and sale of vegetable seeds was computed
using the time series. Tabular analysis was used to assess product promotion measures
adopted by firms for selected vegetable seeds, farmers’ preference in vegetable seed
purchases and problems in vegetable seed marketing as perceived by dealers and
users/farmers. The Lorenz curve technique was used to analyse market structure for vegetable
seeds at dealers’ level and the Garrett’s ranking technique was used for farmers’ preferences
in vegetable seeds purchases.