Indian Journal of Agricultural Marketing
Year : 2023, Volume : 37, Issue : 1
First page : ( 127) Last page : ( 142)
Print ISSN : 0971-8664. Online ISSN : 2456-8716.

Supply chain management and marketing of jute in Assam

Charinga Munmee, Borthakur Nilotpal

Department of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam

Online published on 8 May, 2023.

Abstract

Considering that jute is a major fiber crop in Assam, the product moved from the producer to consumer through a process of management i.e. chain which involves growing, harvesting, retting, wholesaling, retailing etc. The assembly traders may directly procure the product from farmer's field or farmers may sale the produce directly in the market. In another way, traders may directly collect the produce from the farmer's fi eld to the mill or farmers may directly sale the produce to the mill. The raw jute marketing is a major problem to the jute farmers in Assam as they do not get the remunerative price for their produce. The eficient marketing is an essential operation for increasing production and income of the farmers. Hence the present study was attempted to find out the supply chain of jute in Assam and to study the marketing of jute. Dhubri and Nagaon districs were purposively selected based on area and production of jute for the study. A three-stage sampling technique was followed to draw a sample of 200 jute farmers spread over eight villages located in four blocks. Bilasipara market from Dhubri district and Dhing market from Nagaon were selected for the purpose. The overall analysis revealed that jute fibre was moved through a number of different channels in both the districts. The highest number of channels was observed in Nagaon. This may be due to the fact that the Assam Cooperative jute mill is situated in Silghat, Nagaon. It was also observed that net price received by the farmers was higher in this district as compared to other. From the analysis of marketing cost and margin, it was noticed that the highest marketing cost incurred in jute marketing was in Channel IV of Dhing market where cost incurred by commission was comparatively higher than other channels. The lowest marketing cost was incurred in channel I of Dhing market which was the shortest marketing channel among all the marketing channels. It was also found that highest marketing share received by an intermediary was in Channel III. This may be due to the fact that the wholesaler cum commission agent sale the jute fiber to the jute mill directly at a higher rate, but the producers were unaware of actual price paid by jute mill. As a result the wholesaler cum commission agent buys the produce at a lower price equivalent to market price. The above conclusions suggest following policy implications for better marketing of jute and to encourage the farmers to grow more jute. Farmers should be provided remunerative prices for their produce; the marketing costs can be minimized through reducing the involvement of market intermediaries. The farmers should have adequate knowledge of marketing of jute. The training and awareness campaign must be organized by Govt. and extension personalities to produce better quality jute.

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Keywords

Supply chain, Marketing, Market, Cost, Margin.

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