COLLECTIVE MARKETING OF AGRI AND NON-

TIMBER FOREST PRODUCE

By

Diptiranjan Sahoo (25013)

Prabhakar Singh (25032)

Organizational Traineeship Segment

PRM 2004-06

Submitted to: Prof. K. V. Raju

MART, Bhubaneswar

July 2005

Institute of Rural Management, Anand

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all we would like to thank MART for providing us an opportunity to learn a lot within
a short span besides fulfilling our Organizational Traineeship Segment (OTS). We are
grateful to MART team members, Mr. A. Chandak, Mr. K.P. Mishra and Mr. C.K Mishra for
the guidance and support provided to us in completing the Segment. It was indeed a
wonderful experience to work with them.

We are deeply indebted to the guidance provided by our Faculty Guide, Prof. K.V. Raju for
providing his valuable advices and insights on the topic whenever needed. We also thank
Prof. Jayant Negi, the OTS co-coordinator for the opportunity provided.

We are grateful to the WORLP CBT, PIA and LST members who helped us in selecting the
right villages and provided us the logistics to commute through the villages.

Last, but not the least, we would like to extend our sincere gratitude to the secretaries of
watersheds and the villagers who helped us in conducting the survey successfully. Without
their cooperation and support this project could not have been completed.

Diptiranjan Sahoo (25013)

Prabhakar Singh (25032)

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 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
I. Title: Collective marketing of Agri-produce and Non-timber forest produce
II. Organization: MART, Bhubaneswar
III. Reporting Officer: Mr. Ashwini Chandak
IV. Faculty Guide: Prof. K.V. Raju
V. Students’ Name: Diptiranjan Sahoo(25013) and Prabhakar Singh(25032)
Objectives:
1. To build up an understanding on two farm-produces, namely Cotton and arhar.
2. To propose a marketing strategy for both the produces in order to achieve better profit
realization at the community level.
Scope:
1. Understanding the product characteristics and the cost involved in the pre-production,
production and post production phase per unit area.
2. Identifying the existing the existing trading channel and value addition perspective at
different levels.
3. Identifying the existing indigenous technical knowledge and exploring low cost
technical intervention as profit enhancement strategy
4. Understanding the socio-economic characteristics of the rural community and their
inclination towards marketing of the produce through collective action.
Methodology:
Focused group discussion and interview through semi-structured questionnaire and
discussion through formal interaction were the methods adopted to collect the data
from the farmers, kutchias etc from twenty villages of four blocks of the Bolangir and
Nuapada districts. Besides the primary data effort was made to collect the secondary data
from different Government and Non-Government sources through institution profiles.
Major findings:
Cotton as a cash crop is grown in uplands by all type of farmers; land leasing is also
practised in case of small and marginal farmers. Farmers remain in clutches of kutchias
by taking inputs at an interest rate of 50% per six months and end up in selling their
produce at a differential price of Rs.80-250 than the prevailing mandi price. Kutchias
cheat farmers not only in price but also in weighing the produce and in giving the money
to farmers 1-2 months latter in a phased manner. In case of arhar though most of the
farmers cultivate in only half to one acre of upland as a mixed crop with paddy ,still some
marketable and marketed surplus exists due to simultaneous selling just after harvesting
to fulfil the monetary need of the family. Due to the pulse eating habit of the people here,
some portion of the produce is returned back just after reaching the next higher level
market. And rest portion is consumed in the town market. Value addition is restricted to
grading the good quality (rounded, red in colour and not infested) of seeds than the
inflated and infested produce.
Conclusion and recommendations:
In case of cotton as the cost of cultivation is high due to injudicious spraying of
pesticides, hence IRM based IPM practice should be encouraged through different
meeting by Agriculture officers, video shows and through folk daces. Awareness should
be generated for quality perception by differentiating different plucking according to
staple length. Collective marketing by farmers’ association is a prudential step by linking
them to the mandi and to different ginning mills. In case arhar processing through low
cost machine by existing SHGs and subsequent selling in the nearby hostels, hotels and
village shops is seen as a viable business. Monetary and technical support from both
Government and NGOs is critical to this kind of collective marketing effort.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Objective 1
1.2 Scope 1
1.3 Research design 2

2. COTTON: PRODUCTION AND MARKETING 4

2.1 Production Phase 4
2.1.1 Product characteristics 4
2.1.2 Agro-climatic requirement 5
2.1.3 Area of production 5
2.1.4 Marketing scenario 6
2.1.5 Existing scenario of cotton 7
2.1.5.1 Pre-production phase 7
2.1.5.2 Production practices 9
2.1.5.3 Income statement of cotton 10
2.2 Post Harvest Phase and Marketing 11
2.2.1 Post-harvest technology 11
2.2.2 Role of Govt. machinery 11
2.2.3 Marketing Phase 12
2.2.3.1 Selling mechanism at farmers’ level 12
2.2.3.2 Role of intermediaries 15
2.2.3.3 Trading channel of cotton 16
2.2.3.4 Characteristics of market 17
2.3 Collective Marketing Of Cotton 18
2.3.1 Need for collective marketing 18
2.3.2 Aim of the Collective Marketing 20
2.3.3 Intervention plan 20

3. ARHAR: PRODUCION AND MARKETING 22

3.1 Production Phase 22
3.1.1 Product characteristics 22
3.1.2 Agro-climatic requirement 22
3.1.3 Area of Production 22
3.1.4 Production practices 23
3.1.5 Constraints in production phase 23
3.1.6 Role of Government machinery 24
3.1.7 Income statement of arhar 25
3.2 Post Harvest and Marketing Phase 26
3.2.1 Post-Harvest Phase
3.2.2 Marketing Scenario of Arhar 28
3.2.2.1 Selling mechanism at farmers’ level 28
3.2.2.2 Trading channel 29
3.2.2.3 Role of Haat 29
3.2.2.4 Role of intermediaries 30

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 3.3 Collective Marketing of Arhar 31
3.3.1 Need for collective marketing 31
3.3.2 Gaps in Collective Marketing effort of arhar 32
3.3.3 Intervention plan 32

4. UNDERSTANDING REGARDING NTFP 33

4.1 Introduction 33
4.2 Dynamics of Mahua flower 33
4.3 Major gaps in NTFP trading 34
4.4 Suggestions to improve the condition 34

ANNEXTURE 1 PRODUCER’S PROFILE 35

ANNEXTURE 2 VILLAGE PROFILE 40
ANNEXTURE 3 TRADER PROFILE 41
ANNEXTURE 4 INSTITUTION PROFILE 45
ANNEXTURE 5 HAAT PROFILE 47
ANNEXTURE 6 LIST OF VILLAGES 49
ANNEXTURE 7 LIST OF TRADERS 50
ANNEXTURE 8 LIST OF RESOURCE PESONS 51
ANNEXTURE 9 QUALITY PARAMETERS FOR COTTON 53
ANNEXTURE 10 IRM BASED IPM PRACTICE 54
ANNEXTURE 11 ECO-FARM AGREEMENT 59
ANNEXTURE 12 GLOSSARY 61
ANNEXTURE 13 LOCALLY USED WORDS 62
ANNEXTURE 14 REFERENCE 63

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 LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Key Stake Holders 5

Table 2: Sampling plan 11
Table 3: Time line 11
Table 4: Study tools for data collection 21
Table 5: Income statement of Cotton 28
Table 6: Characteristics of markets 30
Table 7: Ideal income statement of Arhar 31
Table 8: Actual income statement of Arhar 32
Table 9: Transaction cost in Arhar 37

LIST OF GRAPHS

Graph 1: Block wise Production of Cotton in Bolangir 5

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Graph 2: Trend of Productivity of Cotton in Bolangir 5
Graph 3: Block wise area of Production in Nuapada 5
Graph 4: Trend of Production of cotton in Bolangir 6
Graph 5: Trend of Production of cotton in Nuapada 6
Graph 6: Utilization of Land in cotton 7
Graph 7: Leasing of Land in cotton 7
Graph 8: Sources of cotton seeds 8
Graph 9: Dependency of farmers on fertilizers and pesticides for cotton 8
Graph 10: Reasons for selling of cotton to kutchia by farmers in Nuapada 12
Graph 11: Reasons for selling of cotton to kutchia by farmers in Bolangir 12
Graph 12: Time gap between selling and money realization in cotton in Nuapada 13
Graph13: Time gap between selling and money realization in cotton in Bolangir 13
Graph 14: Duration of storage of cotton before selling 13
Graph 15: Land holding pattern of arhar 22
Graph 16: Problems in arhar production 24

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