Price Spread and Marketing Efficiency of Black Gram in Tamil Nadu, India

A study was conducted to analyze the marketing channels, marketing cost, price spread, and marketing efficiency of Black Gram in Tamil Nadu, India. Both primary and secondary data were used. The primary data pertained to the year 2020-21 and it was collected from 60 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) with 5 market intermediaries were also interviewed through pre-tested questionnaires. The main findings reveals that majority of the sample FPOs (76.00 per cent) followed the channel I which involves producer, FPOs and consumer and (24.00 per cent) of them followed channel II by involving producer, FPO, wholesalers, retailer and consumer. The total marketing cost incurred by participants in channel I and channel II was Rs.18 and Rs.25. In channel I, among the various cost incurred by FPO, electricity and storage cost had the major share of 27.78 per cent. In channel II, among the various cost incurred by the FPO, transportation cost and storage cost had the major share of 40.00 per cent. The price spread of channel I and channel II were Rs.38 and Rs.48. The result revealed that the price spread was higher in channel II compared to channel I. Channel I was more cost effective for Black gram farmers. The marketing efficiency of channel I and channel II was 6.11 and 4.8. The results revealed that the marketing efficiency was relatively higher in marketing channel I.