Financial efficiency of regulated markets in Punjab

A financially efficient market creates a better infrastructure in the market yard which further attracts more market arrival and increases the income of the farmers. Thus, the present study was conducted to examine the financial efficiency of the regulated markets in Punjab based on the primary data. The stratified random sampling technique was used to select the sample of nine markets from the three agro-climatic zones of Punjab belonging to small, medium and large sizes. Results revealed that the income and expenditure of the regulated markets had increased during the study period and the major source of the income was market fee and expenditure was establishment works. It was found that both the income and expenditure were directly proportional to the size of the markets. Further, to check the efficiency of the markets, the income-expenditure ratio, income-establishment expenditure ratio and income-construction ratio were calculated and it was studied that large and medium markets were financially more efficient as compared to small ones. The financial ratios were more than one for the selected markets which mean income was greater than expenditure and during the last eight years, the market committee had gained profit and had worked efficiently. Zone-wise analysis stated that markets of Zone-I were not financially efficient as compared to Zone-II and Zone-III due to less market arrival in the markets which consequently had the lesser market income from the market fee. The study concluded that an efficient agricultural marketing system can be evolved by improving, strengthening and optimally utilizing the existing funds of regulated markets.