An economic analysis of marketing efficiency and constraints for cultivation of major pulses in Samba district of Jammu and Kashmir

A study was conducted in Samba district of kandi belt (water scarce) of J&K during the agriculture year 2016–17 where cultivation of pulses is generally practiced by the farmers for livelihood security. Using multistage sampling technique, a sample of 120 farmers was selected and analysed to reveal that there were three types of channels involved in marketing of the major pulses urd bean, mungbean and gram viz. producer - village trader-wholesaler-retailer-consumer (Channel-I), producer-wholesaler-retailer-consumer (Channel-II) and producer- consumer (Channel-III). For all the major pulses, marketing efficiency was highest in channel-III (3.11 for uradbean, 6.47 for mungbean and f05.98 for gram) followed by channel-II and channel-I. This suggests that the marketing efficiency in different channels was highest when there was no marketing intermediary involved between producers and consumers and the produce was sold directly from producer to consumer. It was also found that the major marketing constraints involved in marketing of major pulses in the study area were lack of remunerative prices for the produce, unorganized market, high cost of transportation and lack of market information.