Marketing of Poultry and their Products in Koppal District, Karnataka

Poultry enterprise has been one of the important means to alleviate poverty, reduce malnutrition and unemployment among both rural and urban people. It has enormous potential to bring about rapid economic growth with low investment. As per the 20th livestock census report, the contribution of poultry sector to Karnataka GSDP was 1.79 per cent. The total egg production of Karnataka was 59,994.19 lakh of which backyard poultry was 1,216.83 lakh, commercial poultry was 52,602.94 lakh and others 6174.42 lakhs in the year 2018-19. At present poultry industry is facing number of problems mainly high cost of feeds, persistent outbreak of epidemics among the birds and monopoly controls the market by middlemen coupled with un-remunerative prices for eggs and meat. The study was conducted in Koppal district of Karnataka during the year 2020-21 with the objectives: i) Identify the marketing channels and estimate the marketing margin and their efficiency and ii) Identify the constraints in poultry and their products marketing. Stratified purposive random sampling procedure was adopted for selection of poultry units (40) from two taluks and 10 wholesalers and 10 retailers in the study area were selected randomly. The study identified the 3 major marketing channels and found that entire effectiveness of the marketing system is determined by the price spread, which is made up of various marketing costs, margins and number of intermediaries. Among the marketing problems lack of storage facility, high price fluctuations and interrupt of middleman in marketing and lack of cooperative marketing facility were the other crucial problems in the study area. The study suggests policy options are: i) There is a need for promotion with incentives for on farm construction of proper storage and processing of eggs and broilers to handle the price fluctuations and gets benefited from higher prices during peak demand ii)To improve the marketing efficiency, it is suggested to form poultry farmers FPO’s where-ever feasible.