Micro level study of Economics of Production and Marketing of principal Vegetable crops in North Bihar.
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Date
2011
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Rajendra Agricultural University
Abstract
Vegetable is known as the most essential item in our daily meal as it contains all the necessary nutrients of balanced diet. A good quality of vegetables also has medicinal as well as aesthetic value. Besides this, in agricultural business, it is also considered as remunerative crops which provide comparatively better return to farmers within short period. The present study is an attempt to examine the economics and marketing of principal vegetables in North Bihar. In present study detail study has been made to assess the importance of vegetables in cropping pattern, economics of its production, production efficiency of different factors, seasonal variation in arrivals and prices of vegetables and producer’s share in consumers’ rupee in vegetable marketing.
For the study, multistage stratified random sampling technique was used for selection of the sample. North Bihar having large part of operational holdings under vegetable crops was selected purposively as study area and from North Bihar, two districts Vaishali and Samastipur we also selected in the same pattern. Further, from each district one block that is, Mahua from Vaishali and Dalsingsarai from Samastipur were selected randomly and from each block three villages which make total 6 villages were also selected randomly. Finally, from these six villages, 20 sample farmers from each village consisting all the three size groups that is marginal, small and medium were selected randomly for the study. Primary data was collected by survey method with the help of schedule and questionnaires. Cobb-Douglas production function technique was used to examine the efficiency of the factors of production. Similarly exponential trend equation and Shepherd’s formulae were also used to work out compound growth rate and marketing efficiency of vegetables.
Findings of the study reveal that vegetables alone constituted, on an average 16 percent of the operational holding which was nearly 18 percent under marginal, 15 percent in small and 6 percent in medium farm which indicates inverse relationship between farm size groups and area under vegetables. Economics of major vegetable crops indicates that total cost per hectare of cultivation of cauliflower accounted to be Rs.36019.00 out of that operational cost was nearly Rs. 25669.00 and 10350.00 showing 71 percent and 29 percent of the total cost respectively. Under different size groups of farms more or less similar percentage of operational as well as overhead charges of total cost was seen. Input-output ratio over cost C under cauliflower cultivation was found more than one on all farms as well as on different size groups showing economic rationality of the cauliflower cultivation in the study area. It is worth mentioning that along with cauliflower all the other vegetables like cabbage, brinjal, tomato, onion and vegetables of cucurbitaece family etc recorded input-output ratio over cost C more than one showing economic viability of vegetable cultivation in the study area. Net return obtained over cost C in case of all vegetables were also accounted to be quite high which prompted farmers of the study area to go for vegetable cultivation and earning better return per hectare.
While analyzing the production efficiency of different factors of vegetable production, it was observed that in case of cauliflower regression coefficients of the variables like area of the crop, bullock labour, machine labour and seed were found to be positive and significant at one percent level of probability which indicates that these variables played an important role in cauliflower cultivation. In other vegetable crops also most of the important factors were found positive and significant at one percent level of probability indicating their major role in cultivation of concerned vegetables.
In the study, attempt has also been made to estimate the variation in arrivals and prices of vegetables in the market. The study reveals that generally arrivals of the vegetables were found comparatively larger during the harvest period as compared to the months when concerned vegetables were not harvested. The prices of vegetables vary inversely that is when arrival was high; prices were low and vice-versa. In marketing of vegetables, in the area four marketing channels were identified that is (i). Channel I: Producer → Consumer (ii). Channel II: Producer →Retailer → Consumer (iii). Channel III: Producer → Commission Agent → Retailer → Consumer (iv). Channel IV: Producer → Commission Agent →wholesaler→ Consumer.
Further, it was observed that there was inverse relationship between the arrivals of various vegetables in the market and their prices, producer’s share in consumers’ rupee and marketing efficiency decreased with increasing length of marketing channels. On the other hand total marketing cost increased with increasing length of marketing channels.