October - December 2012 - National Institute of Rural Development

464 Pradeep Kumar MehtaThe correlation between productionand price provides a picture of difference inthe nature of marketing of these crops. Table6 indicates a positive and significantcorrelation between price and production forapple, whereas same is negative forcauliflower. It means apple growers whoreceived higher level of production havebeen able to receive higher price of the crop.This is mainly because they are able to sellthe produce in different forms and at differentlocations including Delhi, Kolkata andBangalore. Lack of such opportunity invegetable market results in negativecorrelation between production and price.Farmers with higher produce of caulifloweralso did not receive higher price. Thecorrelation between the variability in priceand production illustrates that cauliflowergrowers experienced a positive correlationbetween the variability of production andprice, whereas this is not the case for apple.Vegetable is a more perishable crop withfewer opportunities in terms of scope ofmarketing.Table 6 : Correlation Between Production and Price of Apple and Cauliflower, 2004-06Correlation Coefficient Mean Price and production Coefficient of Variation (CV)in price and productionApple 0.317* -0.287*Cauliflower -0.111 0.462*** 1% level of significance.** 5% level of significance.Source : Primary Data.Typology and Determinants of RiskAttitudes of FarmersIn case of our sampled farmers, only onecommercial crop dominates the farm income.In such cases, farmers are concerned in termsof how far and how often returns fail to reacha below mean target returns level(Roumasset, 1976). The risk coefficientprovided by Roy, 1952, accounts for suchcosts in analysing farmers’ behaviour towardsrisk. Results based on the Roy’s risk coefficientmeasure show that most of the cauliflowergrowers are risk-takers than averse to risk;more than 66 per cent of the farmersgrowing cauliflower have a positive riskcoefficient (Table 7). This indicates that risktakingbehaviour is displayed by many farmhouseholds in the production of cauliflower.However, for apple, most of farmers take asafety-first position on the basis of their landallocation decision; around 60 per cent of theapple growers have negative risk coefficientpoints their safe position. Interestingly, forboth group of farmers, the safety-first positiongives the rationale for increasing landallocation to high value commercial crop;group of farmers showing negative riskcoefficient (facing low risk) have allocatedrelatively higher proportion of land to thecommercial crop i.e., cauliflower and apple.Journal of Rural Development, Vol. 31, No. 4, October - December : 2012