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Abstract
The importance of precise estimation of marketed and marketable surplus has been felt in India in view of its crucial role in forming the economic database for formulation of economic policies/decisions by the government. As available data of marketable surplus has become obsolete, the present survey throws up information not only on marketed & marketable surplus ratios but also on factors that influence them with particular reference to cultivation of paddy in West Bengal. It has been observed that both marketed & marketable surplus ratio tends to increase steadily with increase in farm-size. While average marketed surplus ratio, taking all farms together, stands at 55.30 percent of net availability of paddy or 61.19 percent of current production of paddy, the marketable surplus ratio stands at 43.49 percent of net availability of paddy 36.43 percent of current production. It is evident that factors like farm size, average price received by the farms, access to credit and possession of pucca storage have significant positive relationship with marketed/marketable surplus ratio, while factors like household size, indebtedness of farm households exhibit a significant negative relationship with marketed/marketable surplus ratio. On the whole it comes out that marketed/marketable surplus ratio of paddy in West Bengal is much lower as compared to other agriculturally advanced states, and that the ratio of marketed/marketable surplus depends much upon the socio-economic condition of the farmer households.
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Keywords: Marketed surplus ratio, Marketable surplus ratio, Socio-economic factors
Introduction
The importance of precise estimation of marketed and marketable surplus has been felt in India since 1947 in the context for planning for agricultural development, distribution programmes and pricing policies for agricultural commodities. The available data of marketable surplus based on the surveys conducted by the Directorate of marketing and Inspection during earlier decades has largely become obsolete. This has been particularly because of the fact that over the years, there is consistent improvement in the post-harvest technology, knowledge and skill of the farmers and development of various post-harvest infrastructures leading to possible reduction in post-harvest losses. Changing farmers' behaviours, cultivation practices and government policies to reduce the distress sale, could have also changed the ratio of marketed & marketable surplus. As such, there has been a...