Marketed Surplus of Major Foodgrains in Maharashtra

Understanding the magnitude of marketable and marketed surplus and the variables affecting are of great importance in the development of sound policies with respect to agricultural marketing, pricing and distribution of important agricultural commodities, imports and exports and overall rural and economic development. The Directorate of Marketing & Inspection (DMI) had been conducting surveys on marketing of agricultural commodities since its inception. However, with commercialization of agriculture leading to changes in the level of production over the decades, these surveys have become obsolete and needed to be revisited. The fresh survey dealt with three crops in Maharashtra, namely tur, gram and maize and observed that marketable surplus is greater than marketed surplus which indicates that the farmers are retaining some surplus produce. Retention in case of tur was 14.86 per cent for sample farmers, while in case of gram it was 9.55 per cent. Maize was grown mainly for commercial purposes. The study also observes that maximum production losses are during harvesting, perhaps since farmers still use manual method. Bottlenecks in production and marketing must be addressed and postharvest losses minimized so that marketed surplus can increase.