Determinants of farmers’ choice for agricultural output marketing channels of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum): an empirical evidence from north-western Himalayan region

The production of marketable vegetables like tomato is regarded to be a significant income source for farmers in the northwest Himalayan region. The contributory factors that affect tomato crop production and marketing as well as farmer livelihood are the output market channels selection. Therefore, considering the significance of this, the present study focuses on the factors which affects farmers choice of marketing. A multi-stage stratified random sampling procedure was used to select 400 farmers, and the data were collected using a well-structured questionnaire. The multinomial logistic regression model (MNL) was employed to determine the factors influencing farmers’ choice for agricultural output marketing channels of tomato crop. The results revealed that most of the tomato produce transacted through output marketing channels, namely producer—wholesaler—retailer—consumer (44.0%) and producer—commission agent—retailer—consumer (35.5%). The empirical results of MNL indicated that education, farm income, farming experience, distance to market, payment at the time of sale, payment in advance and slow sale were the major factors which are positively significant at 1% significant level influences the farmers choice to sell their tomato produce to wholesaler. Relying on the survey observations, to increase market participation in other channels study indicated that there is a need to improve market infrastructure, such as storage facility, market near farmgate and market information. Therefore, we suggest that the government and related stakeholders should focus on strengthening and promoting collective action through cooperative societies, farmers producer organisations, and development of competitive market in the study area.