Abstract

The nature of vegetables, lack of proper storage and processing facilities, lack information, and presence of many middleman in vegetable market lead to a wide range of fluctuation in prices that affected both farmers and consumers. Using Shepherd Index, the marketing efficiency was measured and the marketing cost function analysis facilitated to evaluate relative contribution of various factors to the marketing cost. The marketing cost and marketing margin in relation to consumer's price were higher; marketing efficiency was very low for tomato, followed by brinjal, small onion and bhendi. Quantity marketed and the distance from village to market had significantly increased the marketing cost for brinjal and bhendi. The distance and labour cost for post harvest operations positively influenced the marketing cost of tomato while marketing cost increases with quantity marketed for small onions.

Keywords: Marketing efficiency, Marketing cost, Marketing margin.