Vol. 11, Special Issue 2 (2022)

Author(s):
Baburaj LK, J Venkatapirabu, D Suresh Kumar, A Vidhyavathi and Maheshram S

Abstract:
Agriculture sector is now becoming a major consumer of the neem products viz. Neem oil, neem cake and neem based pesticides. Being eco-friendly and natural source of phyto-chemicals and nutrients it is preferred to apply Neem manure and pesticide in agriculture especially in organic farming all over the world. The present study was conducted in Tamil Nadu stating covering seven districts namely Coimbatore, Dindigul, Dharmapuri, Madurai, Sivagangai, Thoothukudi and Vellore. Neem seed collectors and Neem cultivating households sell their Neem seeds to different type of traders like Village Merchants, Commission Agents, Oil Mills and the retail shops at their villages. Among these, the village merchants receive Neem seeds accounted for 62 per cent to the total followed by 17 per cent of the households that were able to sell the Neem seeds directly to the Oil Mills located in nearby villages while they were paying a visit to the weekly market for purchase of groceries and procure the need based oil for kitchen use from the oil miller. Among the five chains, the price spread is very low in respect of Chain – II which had only 36 per cent of spread followed by Chain – IV which had 41 per cent of price spread between the consumer and the collector and hence the these two chains can become the best for the collectors and the consumers.