Comparative Analysis of Marketing Efficiency and Price Spread in Potato Supply Chains: A Study in Coochbehar, West Bengal

Vol 10 , Issue 2 , July - December 2023 | Pages: 77-88 | Research Paper

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https://doi.org/10.17492/jpi.pragati.v10i2.1022305

Published Online: December 15, 2023

Author Details ( * ) denotes Corresponding author

1. * Jeet Saha, Research scholar, Department of Economics, University of North Bengal, Siliguri, West Bengal, India (rs_jeet@nbu.ac.in)

2. Zafar Iqubal, Assistant Professor, Economics, University of North Bengal, Siliguri, West Bengal, India (zafareco@nbu.ac.in)

In this paper, we are analysing the Marketing efficiency and price spread of potato market and the determinants of marketing efficiency in Coochbehar district of West Bengal. We rely on primary data for this analysis, collecting 120 samples across the district and discovering that marketing efficiency is very low in the area, and it is even lower when Middlemen are present. We divide the marketing channel into two parts. There are middlemen in channel 1 and no middlemen in channel 2. In the absence of middlemen, marketing efficiency is 0.44; in the presence of middlemen, it is 0.34. Price spreads also differ by 5 per cent if middlemen do not exist. Our findings also suggest years of education and years of marketing experience positively affect marketing efficiency and transport cost, margin of intermediaries negatively influences marketing efficiency.

Keywords

Potato Marketing; Marketing Efficiency; Middlemen; Agricultural Marketing; Price Spread

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