Vijayakumar, H SRajaram, mane Rahul2019-10-172019-10-172000No. of Reference 42http://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810131901The maize starch industry in terms of volume and value of the final products is most important sector in the world.The turn over of the Indian starch industry is about Rs. 5,000 million. Starch industry suffers from various management problems. Therefore to help existing manufactures and who wish to enter in the industry Belgaum district was selected in Karnataka with both established starch units. Further they were categorized into two namely, small and large unit based on their installed capacity. The primary data was for the collected for the year 1998-99 by personal interview method with the help of pre-tested schedule. Similarly secondary data was collected from both the units and DIG, Belgaum for the year 1998-99. The results revealed that, in Belgaum district 12,294 agro-based units were established, out of which 12,278 were small units. There was a direct relationship between the total capital investment and the size of the unit. The starch industry followed the line organization type of structure. Totally three patterns of procurement of maize were identified. The cost of carrying inventory per tonne of maize was higher (Rs.913.29) in large unit. The cost of production of starch per tonne of maize processed was small (Rs.8,374.37) in small unit. The value added as a result of processing activity was high (Rs.5,724.15) in large unit per tonne of maize processed. Maximum quantity of starch was marketed through traders and commission agents. The marketing cost per tonne of starch was high through channel III (commission agent). The units used 50 kg package for marketing of starch powder. The small unit adopted pricing at the market strategy and large unit adopted penetration pricing and loss leader pricing strategy. The business performance as observed through the financial ratios showed that the large processing units were more efficient than the small unit.ennullThesis