Ph.D. Research Scholars, Department of Geography, Panjab University, Chandigarh
Online published on 4 March, 2016.
Buyers form an important component of vegetable marketing system. The present research work is aimed at highlighting the socio-economic characteristics of buyers comingto the vegetable market of TandaUrmar of Hoshiarpur District (Punjab). Nearly 50 to 100 buyers come to the vegetable market of Tandadaily for making purchases. For the present study a sample of 25 buyers was chosen randomly and interviewed using a structured interview schedule. The data was tabulated manually and the results were represented through statistical diagrams.The results showed thatnearly 2/3rd of the shopkeepers and street hawkers were non-Punjabis who have migrated to Punjab from U.P and Bihar. A large chunk of the interviewed buyers belonged to the young and mature age groups and more than 4/5thof the buyers had either medium or large family size. The buyers with high monthly income mostly included the retail shopkeepers whose investment in this profession was high, since they bought vegetables and fruits in bulk and used horse-carts and four wheelers as means of transportation. The buyers in the lower income groups re-sold the vegetables and fruits as street hawkers. The migrants who have come from other states are continuously adopting this profession. There has been a great addition of migrant buyers into this profession in the last ten years.
