Efficiency in supply chains of litchi marketing in Bihar, India

For past one and half decades productivity of litchi in Bihar has been decreasing, yet area under litchi cultivation continues to increase. To address the issue, investigation into marketing of litchi to know the price received by farmers and similar stakeholders was conducted. The study found that farmer's share in consumers’ price was more than 50 percent in a channel but this is only practiced by around 11 percent of sample farmers. The marketing of litchi is dominated by pre-harvest contractors (PHCs) though this is associated with low share of farmer in consumers’ rupees for litchi. This infact suggests about “absent landowners” in litchi orchard. The absent land-owners are not in a position to absorb different kind of risk associated with marketing of litchi, therefore PHCs have arrived.