An Economic Analysis of Production and Marketing of Chilli in Mokokchung District of Nagaland

The present study was based on information collected from 50 chilli growers, 12 retailers, and eight wholesalers from the Mokokchung district of Nagaland in the crop year 2012-13 through a pre-tested well designed questionnaire. Purposively, the paper intended to discover the surplus, cost, margin, and price spread of chilli production and marketing in Longsa village. The study revealed that after holding 9.5% for domestic purpose, producers were left with 90.5% as marketable surplus of which the actual marketed surplus was 86.33% due to 4.17% loss in spoilage and wastage. Regression coefficient with and without the dummy factor showed that area and production were two major determinants having a positive impact on marketed surplus at the 1% probability level of significance. Furthermore, it was observed that a majority of the farmer-producers (52.3%) sold their produce to retailers, that is, channel - II, indicating the most prominent channel. The net price received by producers in consumer's rupee in channel - I was 97.63%, channel - II: 82.43%, and channel - III: 61.9%, signifying that the producer-consumer channel was the highest marketing efficiency channel according to Shepherd's and Acharya-Agarwal's methods. It further concluded that 93% of chilli was traded in the market by way of retailers and wholesalers, and only 7% within the village.