Jyoti Kachroo

Diagnostic Study of Farmers in Context of Cost and Return Analysis, Price Spread Analysis and Marketing Pattern in Mantalai Village of Udhampur District

The study on Diagnostic Study of Farmers in context of cost and return analysis, the price spread analysis and marketing pattern in Mantalai village of Udhampur district is conducted during the year 2015. Cereal crops do not provide much return to the farmers of the area. Moreover, vegetables are most profitable crops in the area and farmers are getting better returns from these. Farmers of the area are also trying to get returns from the growing of fruit crops. The climate of the area is also suitable for growing walnut, bei, apricot, plum, apple etc. It is the cumbersome and little bit difficult for them to market the produce to Jammu. Farmers are facing a specific problem that is road connectivity from their fields to the roadside. The fields are not well connected to the road and the link is in dilapidated conditions which force them to transport the produce through human labor which in turn increases their marketing cost resulting in a decline in their profit. They are demanding proper road connectivity from their fields to the road.

Resource Use Efficiency of Major Field Crops in Reasi District of Jammu Region of Jammu and Kashmir State

The present investigation conducted in the Reasi district of J&K state during the year 2015 has observed that the sample holding under study area comprise maize-wheat cropping system. By using Cobb-Douglas production function it is predicted that resource used in maize and wheat production like human labour, farmyard manure + fertilizer are underutilized indicating that there is further scope to increase their quantity which in turn will boost the returns. On the basis of regression analysis the value of regression coefficient of wheat for human labour, seed, FYM, urea, DAP and plant protection measures was 0.859, -0.321, 0.002, 0.067, 0.009 and 0.004 and for maize it was 0.522, -0.046, 0.095, 0.046, 0.016 and -0.015, respectively, which were found to be statistically significant. The positive sign indicated that one percent increase in the use of these inputs could increase the returns from crop. The negative sign shows that one percent additional expenditure on these inputs would reduce the return of crops. The marginal value productivity of farmyard manure and human labour of dry land wheat was positive and it was 0.312 and 1.231, respectively. This indicates that there still existed a scope to invest more on farmyard manure and human labour. The negative marginal value productivity estimated for seed at ` -5.150 showed that use of seed was more than optimum leading to fall in returns with each additional unit of this input. As far as maize is concerned, positive marginal value productivity of FYM, human labour, urea, DAP and pesticide indicates that there still existed a scope to invest more on these inputs. The negative marginal value productivity estimated for seed at ` -1.192 showed that use of seed was more than optimum leading to fall in returns with each additional unit of this input. The crop production function for wheat and maize with R2 value at 0.74 and 0.87, respectively was statistically significant meaning thereby that 74% of wheat and 87% of maize production of this area was being explained by the mentioned variables in the study.

Cause Importance and Cause Familiarity of the “Aashirvaad-Boond Se Sagar Initiative” of ITC in Jammu City

The present study is an investigation of cause related marketing initiative “Aashirvaad-Boond Se Sagar” of Indian Tobacco Company Ltd. The Agri-business companies are increasingly undertaking the CRM initiatives (a type of CSR), wherein these companies have a scope of undertaking social causes along with achievement of their marketing objectives. Therefore, through this study an attempt has been made to understand consumer perception towards such campaigns. For the same, it was undertaken to study the cause familiarity and cause importance of ITCs-“Aashirvaad-Boond Se Sagar” initiative. The second objective undertaken was to analyze the input of cause familiarity and cause importance on attitude towards the brand and further in the third objective the impact of attitude on purchase intentions was studied. The present study was undertaken in the Jammu City and the data was collected from 200 consumers of Aashirvaad brand. Sequential Sampling was used to collect the data through survey method. The data collected was analyzed using Descriptive Statistics and Regression Analysis. The result of the study indicated that the respondents were of the opinion that ITC has promoted an important cause, but the familiarity to the same was somewhat low. There was a clear indication from the analysis that cause familiarity and cause importance have a significant impact on the attitude towards the brand and also the attitude thus formed through CRM initiative further leads to enhanced purchase intentions. Thus signaling the overall effectiveness of the CRM initiative of ITCs Aashirvaad brand.

Constraints in Production and Marketing of Citrus Fruit in Jammu region of J&K State

The various production and marketing constraints faced by the Citrus growers of various districts of Jammu region were studied by selecting a sample of 192 citrus growers from four districts of Jammu region and suggestions were also made to overcome the said constraints. The data revealed that in Jammu region as a whole it was observed that in the cultivation of citrus several constraints such as lack of finance and credit facilities, inadequate irrigation facilities, non availability of good quality seedlings, farmyard manure, educated members of their family go outside and lack of latest technical knowledge were predominant and expressed by most of the farmers. In the process of marketing, lack of processing units and marketing societies was the major constraint as expressed by almost all the respondents. Moreover, not getting remunerative price for the produce, un-organized marketing, low price paid to farmers, less demand of fruits, lack of market information and cheating in marketing by the middlemen in the form of malpractices, high and undue marketing margins and deductions in the market were the other major problems expressed by the farmers. To overcome the constraints the 100 per cent respondents suggested that government should take initiative to establish fruit processing units in rural areas. There were other large number of respondents who demanded the bank loan facility at nominal interest rates and at proper time. The majority of the farmers also expressed that adequate provision for obtaining remunerative prices be made available and market information regarding market prices by opening of information centre at village level should be made available to them were also few suggestions given by them.

Income and Livelihood Issues of Farmers: A Field Study in Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir State

The study has been conducted in five districts of Jammu region to discuss the income and livelihood issues of farmers. The overall household income from agriculture has been estimated to be 56034.24 with highest of 97876.02 from Kathua district and lowest of 34491.78 earned by the farmers in the Doda district.It has been found that the large farmers earn only 33.04 per cent of income from agriculture followed by 29.26 per cent, 25.30 per cent and 25.24 per cent by medium, small and marginal farmers, respectively. Livestock contributes highest of 11.03 per cent in case of marginal farmers followed by 10.86 per cent, 8.51 per cent and 5.63 per cent in case of small, medium and large farmers. The per day per capita income from agriculture has been found to be 15.43, 17.77, 26.42 and 36.12 for marginal, small, medium and large farmers, respectively, with an overall average of 20.55. As the poverty line fixed by the government is 22.00 which shows that only medium and large farmers fall above the poverty line whereas marginal and small farmers are below poverty line if they depend exclusively on agricultural income. Service sector has been found the important one as it contributes 34.59 per cent of to the total household income of all the farmers. Therefore the farmers of Jammu region have to develop livelihood strategy for their existence.

Marketing costs and Price Spread Analysis for Citrus in Samba district of Jammu region

The present study made a detailed analysis of citrus fruit by studying its marketing costs and price spread which is the important researchable issue for the said crop in Samba district. The marketing chain of three types mainly Producer → Forwarding/Commission agent → Retailer → Consumer, Producer → Retailer → Consumer and Producer → Consumer were followed in the sample area. The average per quintal marketing cost at producers’ level varied to the extent of 438.65, 264.00 and 226.67 per quintal for channel I, II and III, respectively. The average per quintal marketing cost borne by the retailer was found to be 30.95 and 19.40 in channel I and II, respectively whereas in channel III whole of the marketing cost i.e., 226.67 was borne by the producer as there was the direct marketing of produce. As far as the price spread analysis is concerned, the per quintal net price received by the producer was about 945.90, 1036.00 and 1073.33 which was about 44.00 per cent, 51.29 per cent and 82.56 per cent of the price paid by the consumer for channel I, II and III, respectively. A comparison of different channels thus showed that producers’ share in the consumers’ rupee was the highest in case of channel III as compared to other channels. Where in the consumer also paid the lowest price i.e., 1300.00 per quintal in channel III as compared to 2150.00 per quintal and 2020.00 per quintal in channel I and II, respectively which revealed that direct sale from producer to ultimate consumer was beneficial for both producer and consumer. The channel-III with marketing efficiency 4.74 was most efficient followed by Channel-II (1.05) and channel-I (0.79).

Futures Trading of Principal Cereal Crops at The Major Commodity Exchanges of India

The present study studies the futures trading of major cereal crops of India. The maximum share of total traded value was of MCX amounting to 88.02 per cent while as that of NCDEX in the trading was 9.16 per cent, ICE was 1.29 per cent, NMCE and ACE was 0.66 per cent each and all other commodity exchanges was only 0.21 per cent. Wheat and rice were banned from futures trading in February 2007 and the ban in case of wheat was lifted in May, 2009 while that of rice is still imposed. It was observed that the claims that futures trading drives up prices and thus inflation is also shooting up to all time high cannot be justified, since the ban on the futures trading was unsuccessful in checking the increasing price of various agricultural commodities. It was observed that futures market encourages competition by attracting traders who hedge their bets and minimize risks on the basis of their own market information and price judgment.

Resource use efficiency of lemon cultivation in Jammu region of J&K state

The present study made an indepth analysis of lemon being an important citrus crop by studying its resource use efficiency. The analysis of data on lemon indicated the overall values of regression coefficients as 0.451, 1.257, -0.011, -0.002 and -0.023 for human labour, manures + fertilizers, irrigation, plant protection and training/ pruning, respectively, out of which human labour and manures + fertilizers were statistically significant, indicating that one per cent increase of expenditures on these two inputs could increase the returns to the extent of 0.45 per cent and 1.26 per cent, respectively, while as in case of irrigation, plant protection and training/ pruning one per cent additional investment could decrease the production by 0.011 per cent, 0.002 per cent and 0.023 per cent, respectively. The marginal value productivi- ties of human labour and manures + fertilizers were positive with their values at 0.111 and 0.882, respectively whereas that of irrigation (-0.020), plant protection (-59.710) and training/ pruning (-0.039) were negative thereby indicating that with an additional one rupee spent on these inputs could reduce the total returns and hence should be checked.