MSc

India is the largest mango producing and the chief exporting country in the
world with an annual mango production of 18 million metric tons, which accounts for
about 50 per cent of the global mango supply. In total India has about 8.97 lakh ha
dedicated to mango farming, out of which Kerala accounts for about 77.30 thousand
ha under mango cultivation during 2014-’15. Muthalamada in Chittur taluk of Palakkad
district, is known as the ‘Mango City’ of Kerala. The mango orchards in Muthalamada
covers around 4000 hectares, with about 5000 mango cultivators. The annual
production of mango in Muthalamada Panchayat is approximately 40,000 tonnes.
However, the mango sector in Palakkad district is not devoid of any problems, which
hinders its economic advancement.
In this background, the present study entitled “Stakeholder analysis for
enhancing the role of primary producers in mango value chain” was taken up in the
Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, during
2015-17. The study was formulated with the objectives to identify the stakeholders in
mango value chains, their functions and value share, to analyze the institutions and its
role in mango value chain, to identify the marketing channels utilized by the farmers,
to examine the price spread and marketing efficiency of the farmers, to understand the
constraints faced by the farmers and to suggest value chain enhancement measures in
favor of producer farmers.
Survey was carried out among the mango growers and other stakeholders in
Muthalamada Panchayat. About 60 farmers and 30 stakeholders were randomly
selected for the study. Stakeholder analysis, SWOC matrix analysis and Scenario
analysis were carried out through group discussions.
The results of the baseline information of the respondents revealed that the
farmers with age in between 51 and 70 years depended on agriculture alone (64.70 per
cent) and hence they were more cautious about marketing their produce. They marketed
more than 75 per cent of their produce to distant markets such as Delhi, Mumbai,
Ahmedabad, etc. The respondents had good educational status with experience of more
than 20 years and medium extension contact. The farmers cultivating in leased land
along with their own orchard (78.26 per cent) tend to go for combined cultivation
practices.
Two third of the respondents (68.62 per cent) possessing different areas relied
on collection agent for marketing their produce as they are easily approachable and the
farmers had to incur only transportation cost. The mango growers were well organized,
with about 51 respondents (49 per cent) having membership in Farmer Producer
Organization (FPO). Alphonso, Banganpally, Bennett Alphonso and Tottapuri are
mainly preferred for cultivation as these varieties are having huge demand in both
international as well as domestic markets.
Stakeholder analysis according to importance- influence scoring revealed that
intermediaries like mandi walas, trader, collection agent and pre-harvest contractor had
more influence in the mango sector. The major institutions involved in mango value
chain include Krishi Bhavan, State Horticulture Mission (SHM), APEDA (Agricultural
and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority), FPOs (Farmer Producer
Organizations), Chittur Agro Park and NABARD (National Bank for Agriculture and
Rural Development). The marketing channel utilized by the farmers varies according
to the grade of the produce, grade 1 is the export quality, grade 2 is usually the
undersized mangoes that does not fulfil the export requirement and grade 3 is
malformed mangoes or mangoes having external discoloration, etc.
In case of grade 1 mangoes both channel 1 and channel 2 were having
marketing efficiency 0.14. Margin was highest for the wholesaler and the exporting
agency for channel 1 and channel 2 respectively. For grade 2 mangoes, channel 4 was
found to be more efficient (0.24) due to absence of an intermediary. Grade 3 mangoes
are mainly sold at the local markets and for processing, wherein marketing of mangoes
directly to local market was found to be efficient (0.4) whereas in case of processing
involvement of too many intermediaries affects the efficiency of the marketing
channel.
The important factors affecting marketing efficiency according to binary
logistic regression include experience, ownership, income source, type of cultivation,
orchard type, credit source and marketing channel. A comparative study was made
among two groups of farmers, group I comprising of farmers with less than 5 acres of
land and group II encompassing farmers with more than 5 acres. The result highlighted
that, cultivation type was significantly different for the respondents of the two groups.
Major constraints faced by the farmers during marketing include poor availability of
market information, absence of a common collection center, over dominance of middle
men and deficit of timely labor. Finally, SWOC analysis and scenario analysis were
conducted to arrive at strategic options. The strategic options developed from the study
are enhancing value addition and product development, promotion of branding of the
produce, to educate the farmers on building competitiveness and to increase export
potential by addressing quality parameters.