Marketing Pattern and Price Behaviour of Rapeseed-Mustard in Punjab

The present study was conducted to examine the marketed surplus, sale pattern, price spread and price behaviour of mustard in Punjab. A sample of 100 farm households was taken using multistage random sampling technique. Out of the total production of the mustard crop, quantity retained for seed was 0.93 percent, family consumption was 6.19 percent and marketed surplus was 93.02 percent. In sales pattern, the percentage of quantity handled was the highest in Channel-I (58.13 percent), followed by Channel-II (23.64 percent) and Channel-III (18.23 percent). Price spread was the lowest in Channel-III (78.07 per q) and the highest in Channel-I (695.52 per q). The marketing efficiency index was highest in Channel-III (45.62) which indicated that this market channel is the most efficient channel among all the channels in the study area. Significant fluctuations in terms of mustard prices were reported during the period 2011 to 2016. The mustard prices exhibit oscillatory movement along with trend line during the period 2011 to 2016.