Production and Marketing of Arunachal Orange -An Economic Evaluation

An attempt has been made in this paper to identify the economics of production, disposal trends, post-harvest losses and marketing channels, price spread, marketing efficiency of Arunachal orange. The present study was undertaken with the sample of 60 Arunachal orange growers. Findings of the study revealed that the total cost of cultivation was the highest on small farms. The Total costs of cultivation on small, medium, and large farmers were ? 40,076/-, ? 37,395/- and ? 34,965/- per hectare respectively. The highest BCR of 4.86 was achieved by the large farms because of judicious expenditure in Arunachal Orange cultivation and obtaining a sizeable amount of returns. It was apparent that all categories or Arunachal Orange farmers were facing the production constraints viz. high infestation by pest and disease, high-cost inputs and scarcity of labours. Lack of cold storage in that area of study compelled the farmers to sell their produce soon after harvest. It was observed that the total marketing cost increased from 23.96 per cent in channel-I to 27.35 per cent in channel-II and to 29.49 per cent in channel-Ill. The total marketing margin received by the market functionaries was the highest of 31.40 per cent in case of channel-Ill followed by 28.59 per cent in case of channel-II and 24.65 per cent in channel-I. The indices of marketing efficiency of 3.17 in channel-I was the highest as compared to rest of the channels due to existence of only one middleman. It can be suggested for improving market infrastructure, direct and group marketing, establishment of modern marketing and processing units, market integration, Formation of FPOs in the study area.