Department of Agribusiness Management, College of Agriculture, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad-580 005, Karnataka.
Karnataka is one of the major vegetable producing states in India with an area of 3.67 lakh hectares under vegetable production. Belgaum district of the state occupies first position in vegetable production in northern Karnataka and second position in the entire state. Several seed companies in the corporate sector cater to the regular demand of vegetable seeds in the district. The present study, related to the seed market in the district, has (i) analyzed dealers’ concentration in seed market, (ii) assessed farmers'preferences in vegetable seed purchases, and (iii) identified the problems faced by farmers and dealers in vegetable seed marketing. The Lorenz curve analysis has indicated lack of market power concentration with dealers and the operation of competitive forces in the seed market. It has also been revealed by the results that (a) the most important factor considered by the farmers in seed purchases was yield level, followed by germination percentage, neighbours’ opinion and brand among others, (b) seed price was of least importance for the farmers, (c) field demonstrations were the most effective promotional measure, followed by field demonstrations, visits to research plots, field days, exhibitions, etc., and (d) most severe problems faced by the farmers in seed marketing were non-availability of seeds in time, low yield, non-viable seeds and fake seeds in that order. The study has called upon the seed companies to make extra efforts to ensure availability of quality seeds in time to the farmers and take up the promotional activities like field demonstrations, farmers’ visits to research plots and organization of field days on priority basis.
