Economics of Production and Marketing of Mango Crop a Case Study of Malda District West Bengal

Abstract

Malda is the most important mango producing district in West Bengal and also one of the newlineimportant mango producing districts in India. Being a traditional commercial mango newlineproducing zone with huge potential, mango growers of the district suffer many problems such newlineas low and irregular productivity, short term changes of orchard ownership, dominancy of newlinemiddle men in fruit marketing, degraded fruit quality and almost zero export of fresh fruit. newlineThe present study deals with the problem related to the mango cultivation, harvesting, newlineproductivity, marketing and the related the infrastructure and technological bottlenecks. The newlinestudy finds that there is positive and stable growth trend along with a yield rate higher than newlinenational average and quite comparable to the world highest yield resulted from the changing newlinetrend in the bearing regularization practices and the preference schedule of the commercial newlinemango cultivars. From the age specific analysis it is found that the yield rate declines for newlinealmost all the commercial varieties within the age group 40-50 years. The high risk of mango newlinecultivation and the growers inability of investment lead the owners to temporary transfer of newlinethe ownership which has a positive impact on productivity but adverse effect on the orchard newlinehealth and quality of the fruits. The Performance Differential Index, formed on block level newlineestimates of mango productivity for three study-blocks namely English Bazar from Diara newlineregion, Old Malda from Barind and Ratua-I from Tal, shows no significant difference in spite newlineof their geographical differences. There are several fruit marketing channels differ with newlinerespect to their length and efficiency. newline