A study on quality, grading and prices of jowar and maize in northern Karnataka
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Date
2007
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Publisher
UAS, Dharwad
Abstract
Agriculture is the mainstay of the Indian economy. Agriculture sector contributes
nearly 21 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of India, while about 65-70 per cent
of the population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. The recent technological
advances have tremendously helped in transforming the subsistence nature of agricultural
sector with the introduction of high yielding varieties, expansion of irrigation facilities,
increased application of yield enhancing inputs and farm mechanization. However, the
overall economic condition of a vast majority of farmers is far from being satisfactory owing
to their inability to realize reasonable returns from the output they produce.
However, the deficiency that has been posing problem to both producers and
consumers in the marketing process without any appreciable solution is ‘lack of grading of
farm produce’. Grading is the process of sorting unlike lot of produce into uniform classes
according to certain intrinsic quality factors and physical characteristics that include moisture
content, foreign matter, admixture, extent of damage, extent of immature produce, pest
infestation, weevil attack, and extent of shriveled produce. Further, Dharwad is also
important jowar producer. Samples were collected during the crop year 2006-07. The total
sample size was 120. For each cereal crops two leading varieties were selected and 30
samples from each variety were selected.
It was hypothesized that, the price depends on both quality and non-quality
characteristics. The quality factors analyzed in the study were colour, carbohydrates, slightly
damaged grains, test weight, crude fiber, immatured grains, foreign matter and acid content.
It was hypothesized that eye sight grades deviate from scientific grades quite significantly
and that they don’t reflect actual quality of the produce. In order to test this hypothesis, it was
necessary to determine scientific grades. This was accomplished on the basis of scientific
measurements of all quality characteristics.