Department of Livestock Economics, Veterinary College, University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore.
The comments of the referee are gratefully acknowledged.
Sericulture is a very important industry in India and cocoons are the output of the farm sector. Reeling industry that provides the vital transformation from cocoons to raw silk, is controlled by three important input attributes viz., cocoon quality, cocoon price, and the quantity of cocoons available. The interrelationship among the inputs as also between the input and output forms an essential aspect of the study of reeling industry. The present study therefore, focuses on the estimation of the relationship between cocoon price and its quality and also the supply (quantity), in order to understand the efficiency of market transactions. It is for the first time that field level data on cocoon quality and the corresponding price it fetched in the market has been used for analysis. The study enabled the identification of the determinants of cocoon price, which is one of the major factors contributing to the revenue of a reeling unit. The quality and supply quantity of cocoons determine its price to a significant extent.
