aCentral Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh
bDepartment of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Birsa Agricultural University, Ranchi – 834 006, Jharkhand
This study based on primary data collection from 150 farmers belonging to marginal and small categories of six villages from two blocks of Ranchi district, has examined various types of supply chains used by these farmers in selling of some important vegetables, namely potato, okra, cauliflower, onion and tomato. Income earned by farmers in different supply chains has been estimated along with yield gap at the existing level of yield at farm/ha in comparison to experimental yield. The study has revealed that level of production, consumption, and marketed surplus at farm level is directly associated with area under cultivation. It has been found that the choice of a supply chain depends on the keeping quality of produce and the volume of output. A shorter chain of marketing is preferred for a perishable item in comparison to that for vegetables like onion and potato. Similarly, small farmers prefer to sale immediately and go to a larger merchant, whereas marginal farmers prefer to sale their produce to the consumer directly. The study has observed that there is ample scope of increasing income of vegetable farmers even at present level of production by adopting efficient supply chain management which is presently adopted in the case of cauliflower which is sent to a bigger market though co-operative arrangement of transport which reduces marketing cost and fetches remunerative price to the producer. By reducing yield gap through adoption of improved seed/hybrid seed is another opportunity to increase vegetable grower's income.
