An economic analysis of marketing of major vegetables in cuddalore district

Vegetables play an important role in the development of our country by improving the economic and social status of the people. Vegetables constitute an important component of a balanced diet for human. Many of the vegetables are of the nature of roughage aiding in digestion. Due to unique geographical and climatic conditions, India is endowed with a wide variety of vegetables. Cuddalore District was purposively selected since the vegetable growers are facing the problem of high commission charge and more number of middlemen. Vegetable Marketing is highly risky due to wide yield and price variation and need quick disposal because of the perishable nature of vegetables. For all these reasons, marketing system of vegetables need to be alert and pay personal attention to production and marketing aspects. The first hypothesis of the study was their exits a direct relationship between total marketing cost and the number of middlemen involved in the identified marketing channel. It was clear from the results that the total marketing cost of Tomato and Brinjal was observed as the highest in the marketing channel I .The second hypothesis of the present study was current arrivals of vegetables is an important source of information for determining the current wholesale price .The result of the regression analysis showed that there was a significant and negative relationship between current price and current market arrivals of Tomato and Brinjal. Thus, market arrivals play an important role in fixing current wholesale price rather then lagged price. The vegetable market is an unregulated market and due to the lack of organized marketing, the vegetable grower get low share for their produce. Therefore it is suggested that establishment of cooperatives in the district will go a long way in the eradication of malpractices in the marketing of vegetables.