Marketable surplus and price spread of potato in Uttarakhand

The study was carried out in 2011 to assess production, market arrival, cost, price spread and efficiency of Potato in U.S Nagar District. The marketable surplus was 87.15per centafter retaining 2.68 per cent for home consumption. The marketed surplus is higher for small farmers (90.12per cent). It revealed that fewer requirements of small farmers than other category farmers were due to their immediate cash requirement. The most prominent marketing channel for Potato was Channel-I (59.23 per cent). The producers share in consumers ’rupee was highest(92.77 per cent) in Channel-III. The share of producer's marketing cost of the channel was 46.06 per cent in Channel-I. The high marketing costs lead to the decrease in the marketing efficiency of the channel which was only 0.48in the Channel-I. Besides high costs, the high retailer's margin was also the cause of lower marketing efficiency. The producers share in consumers ’rupee was highest in Channel-III (92.77 per cent) and the lowest was in Channel-I (38.38 per cent). Marketing efficiency ratio was found to be highest (12.83) in Channel-III.