Determinants of Marketed Surplus of Food Crops-A Village Level Study in the North 24 Parganas District of West Bengal

The aim of this paper is to investigate how different socio economic factors affect market participation and marketed surplus of food crops in some selected villages of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal in terms of a multiple regression model and to suggest different means of increasing the marketed surplus of food crops, which may enlighten the policy makers in fine-tuning their designs and applications. A systematic, multistage stratified sampling design was adopted to conduct a survey and responses of 100 farming households were documented in terms of a pre-tested structured questionnaire designed for the purpose. The study shows that the marketed surplus of food crops by farming households in the area of study increase with the increase in education of household head, perception of farmers regarding lagged market price of the product, landholding size and access to credit; whereas it falls with the increase in household size and distance from the market. All the results are statistically significant. The ‘t-test’ is also conducted to investigate significant difference in mean value for marketed surplus of food crops between farmers when they are divided into two groups based upon different categories defined by the explanatory variables considered in this study.