Marketing of red gram in Gulbarga district of India

The study was conducted in Gulbarga district of Karnataka as it contributed 60.92 per cent share in total production of red gram at state level. Study was undertaken to explore out the different marketing aspects of red gram. Primary data were collected from selected sample respondents (36 small, 15 medium and 9 large) and market intermediaries. The marketing costs, market margins i.e. absolute margin, price spread and producer's share in consumer's rupee were calculated across the observed marketing channels with simple statistical tools. The results indicated that the most popular marketing channel followed by all the three categories of farmers was producer-Agricultural Produce co-operative Marketing Committee (APMC) as more than 77 per cent of the farmers had sold their produce through this channel. It was found that per quintal marketing cost was highest on large farms (Rs.79) followed by small (Rs.76) and medium farms (Rs.73). However, the prices received by all the three categories of farmers varied according to the marketing channels. The highest price received by producers out of consumer's rupee was observed in case of the channel-I, where the producers directly sold their produce in APMC.