Abstract:
Potato is among the most major food crop globally. North Eastern region contributing about 10 per cent of the aggregate area under in the country (Gupta et. al., 2004) In Meghalaya markets are currently constrained by poor marketing arrangements. The gap between price received by potato growers and paid by consumers is large, these reflecting inefficient in marketing arrangements. Hence, the current i study was directed in East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya with the following objectives. Viz., i) To study trends analysis area and production of potato in Meghalaya. ii) To study the marketing pattern of potato in East Khasi Hills district. Three markets (i) Daily market (Bara Bazar) (ii) Weekly market (Smit market) (iii) Regulated market (Mawiong) and 72 respondents were taken randomly through multistage random sampling. CAGR, Price spread and marketing efficiency etc. were used to achieve objectives to study. In the period 2005-06 to 2012-13 between all the districts of Meghalaya, West Garo Hills district shown highest positive growth in area which is 4.60 per cent. Overall Meghalaya has recorded negative growth rate but insignificantly. In the study period 2013-14 to 2017-18 highest growth in area was recorded in East Jaintia Hills district (10.16%) and highest production growth rate was recorded in Ri-Bhoi district (8.88%). Mainly 3 important channels were observed in East Khasi Hills district markets for summer potato and winter potato. They are.

(i) Channel I : Producer →Traders→ Wholesaler → Retailer → Consumer
(ii) Channel II : Producer→ Wholesaler → Retailer → Consumer
(iii) Channel III : Producer → Consumer


Here for summer potato and winter potato highest marketing cost (MC) and marketing margin (MM) was detected in the channel I followed by channel II. Price spread for summer potato and winter potato recorded in channel I was `785/ quintal and `950/ quintal. Due to high price spread in channel I producer’s share in consumer’s rupee is recorded less in summer potato (62.35%) and winter potato (64.82%). Highest marketing efficiency was recorded in the channel III for both summer potato (17.95) and winter potato (22.85). The producer’s share in consumer’s rupee drops as the number of market intermediaries increase. Channel I recorded the lowest marketing efficiency. Hence, there is need to increase storage accommodations for potato growers can sale the produce during better price available in market and moreover increasing Apni mandi markets, to avoid middlemen, which in turn will increase producer’s share in consumer’s rupee.

Includes bibliographical references.