Price spread of green pea in Amritsar District of Punjab

The present study examines the price spread of green pea in Amritsar district of Punjab. The study was based on the primary data collected for 2015–16 year from farmers selected through multistage stratified sampling technique. The requisite primary as well as secondary data were collected to accomplish the objectives of the study. The data were analyzed by using simple tabular analysis and other statistical tools. The study revealed that more area was allocated to pea crop by large farmers and medium farmers for pea cultivation. The small farmers allocated more area to wheat and paddy due to price fluctuations in the pea crop and minimum support price (MSP) for the former. The price of peas per quintal was found to be higher in early season but yield was low where as the price of peas per quintal was less in the main season but yield was high. Returns over variable cost were more in early season than in main season. The results further revealed that marketed surplus was more in the case of small farm as compared to medium and small farms, mainly due to the urgent need of cash to farmers. There were four marketing channels involved in the marketing of peas in the study area. The producers share in consumer rupee was the highest in marketing channel IV i.e. (Producer-Consumer). The marketing efficiency was the highest in channel IV and price spread was the lowest. For improving the marketing of peas it is suggested that number of intermediaries should be less, subsidy may be given on seeds, pure seeds may be made available to farmers, market infrastructure should be improved, and storage and transportation may be strengthened.