Vol. 11, Special Issue 4 (2022)

Author(s):
Janmejay Kumar, A Roy, Amalendu Kumar and Shiv Pujan Singh

Abstract:
The present study was planned to analyze the marketing efficiency of litchi in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar. The district was selected purposely because of the leading litchi producing district in the State of Bihar. In the district 140 sample consisting 60 litchi growers and 80 market intermediaries under the study. In the district litchi crop extensively grown under the area of 33.4 thousand hectares and annual production was 258.3 thousand MT with an annual productivity of 7.8 MT/hectares. The study found that the trends of area production and productivity in the district have showed increasing trend with Compound annual growth rate (CGR) of 0.03, 0.36, and 0.38 respectively. In case of whole State, the CGR of area, production and productivity is 1.01, 0.5, -0.4 respectively. The main region behind growth in productivity showed negative trend was due to uncertentity of rainfall. The study showed that the marketing of litchi is a very complex procedure in the sampled area and where four major type of marketing channel are identified. Channel I: Producer - Pre-harvest contractor - Commission agent cum Wholesaler – Retailer – Consumer. Channel II: Producer- Village Trader- Wholesaler (local) – Commission agent (distant) – Wholesaler (distant) – Retailer –Consumer. Channel III: Producer - Retailer – Consumer. Channel IV: producer –consumer. The fourth channel Producer → Consumer, (local market) was found very much efficient for the producers as compared to other three identified marketing channel. The most important marketing constraints of litchi marketing was perishability of fruits followed by others problems such as labour shortage during harvest, Lack of market information, Lack of marketing infrastructure, Lack of ordered marketing, High transportation cost for distant markets, problem of credit facility, Unorganized production and Price fluctuation etc.