Production and Marketing of Cumin in Jodhpur District of Rajasthan: An Economic Analysis

This study is on the production and marketing of cumin crop in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan. It is based on the data collected from 60 cumin–producers in the tehsils of Falodi and Looni during 2009–10. The study has revealed that cumin cultivation in Rajasthan is a profitable enterprise as the returns per rupee invested have been found to be 1.95 on overall basis, varying from 1.84 on small farms to 2.16 on large farms. The costs on machine labour (14.4%) and human labour (13.0%) have emerged as the major components in the total operational costs. The cumin–producers have been found to follow two channels for the marketing of cumin; Channel-I: Farmer → Village trader → Wholesaler→ Retailer; and Channel-II: Farmer→ Wholesaler (Mandi) → Retailer. The marketing cost has been found to be higher in Channel-I due to involvement of more middlemen in the channel. The producer share has been computed as 62.1 per cent in Channel–I and 68.1 per cent in Channel-II. The study has suggested that measures need to be adopted to increase access of farmers to market information and they should be motivated to market the produce collectively to reduce the cost on transportation.