Price spread, marketing efficiency and constraints in marketing of broiler poultry in Mirzapur district, Uttar Pradesh

Poultry sector is one of the fastest growing sectors of Indian agriculture. There is immense potential in this sector to help in increasing farm income and to tackle malnutrition issues of our burgeoning population. This paper studied marketing of broiler poultry in Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh. Three marketing channels were identified in the study area- channel I (producer → wholesaler → retailer → consumer), channel II (producer → retailer → consumer) and channel III (producer → consumer). There were significant differences in sales through different marketing channels, as found from the results of ANOVA. Channel I was the most prominent channel in the study area, which accounted for more than 80 percent of the total sale of broiler poultry in case of medium and large farmers, and more than 60 percent sales of small farmers. Channel III accounted for nearly 17 percent of the total sales of each category of farmers. Total marketing cost, marketing margin and price spread were found highest in channel I and lowest in channel III. Highest marketing efficiency was found in channel III, and lowest in channel I. Low sale price of poultry meat, price fluctuation, and festival season price drop were some major constraints in marketing of broiler poultry.