marketable surplus and post harvest losses of ragi in ... - Agmarknet

PREFACEThe Directorate of Marketing & Inspection (DMI), ever since it’s inception in the year 1935, hasbeen engaged in conducting surveys on the marketing of agricultural commodities. The available data ofmarketable surplus based on the surveys conducted during earlier decades had become obsolete.Therefore, a nation wide survey was initiated by the DMI for Estimation of Marketable Surplus &Post Harvest Losses of important cereals in the year 1972. The survey included important cereals,namely, Paddy, Wheat, Jowar, Bajra and Maize. However, this data also became obsolete over a period oftime and persistent demand from user organisations continued. Hence, a fresh nation wide survey wasinitiated for Estimation of Marketable Surplus & Post Harvest Losses of selected foodgrains viz.,Paddy, Wheat, Jowar, Bajra, Maize, Ragi and Barley amongst cereals and Arhar, Green Gram,Black Gram, Gram and Lentil amongst pulses. The survey was conducted over a period of three years,i.e; 1996-97, 1997-98 and 1998-99. The sampling frame included 25 States, 100 selected districts and15,000-cultivator households, selected from these districts. The selection of States, districts and cultivatorhouseholds were done in accordance with the stratified multi stage random sampling design,recommended by the Technical Committee in consultation with the Indian Agriculture Statistical ResearchInstitute (IASRI), New Delhi.The data generated during the survey provided valuable information on various aspects of villageprofile and cultivator households, crops grown, retention for different purposes, marketed surplus andmarketable surplus, post harvest losses at producer’s level etc.The data generated is voluminous. The facility of computer data entry helped in consolidatingdata from 7.23 lakhs schedules in a short span of time. This volume provides estimates based on the samplesurvey in respect of production of Ragi, retention by the farm-family household for various purposes, postharvest losses at producer’s level, marketed surplus and marketable surplus etc.I place on record my sincere thanks to the members of the Technical Committee, particularly Dr.A.K. Srivastava, Jt. Director and Dr. H.V.L. Bathla, Principal Scientist & Head, Division of SampleSurvey, C, New Delhi, for rendering valuable guidance from time to time. I also thank Dr. P.Kumar,Professor & Head, Division of Agricultural Economics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhifor his guidance.I thank the National Informatics Centre (NIC), Western Region, Department of InformationTechnology (Ministry of Communication & Information Technology), Government of India, and especiallythe office of NIC at Nagpur, which provided valuable software support in data entry and analysis. I alsothank the Regional Computer Centre, Calcutta for providing computer data entry service.The field survey of such a voluminous nature required sincere and dedicated efforts by the officersand staff of the D.M.I. and officers and staff of the Designated State Agencies. I place on record my deepappreciation of their efforts made in this survey.I, also place on record deep appreciation of sincere efforts of the Chief Project Coordinators andtheir team of officers at Branch Head Office in managing the task of such gigantic nature.Last but not the least, I place on record my deep appreciation of the help and cooperation renderedby the selected cultivator households without whose enthusiasm, support and responses during the courseof survey, the project would have not been possible.The Government of India should not be regarded as assuming responsibility for any of thestatements, contained in the reportFaridabadDated, the:(P.K. Agarwal)Agricultural Marketing Adviserto the Government of India.