Disposal Mechanisms and Price Behaviour of Mandarin Orange along Dumre-Besishahar Road Corridors
 Ram Chandra Bastakoti, Krishna Lal Poudel

Citrus was included as an additional component in the HARP project PP 139/99 entitled 'Vegetable marketing systems along the Dumre-Besishahar road corridors: socio-economic implications for market oriented production' with the aim of studying the existing production and marketing systems and thus finding the appropriate strategies for its improvements. The general objective of this study was to study the disposal mechanisms and price behaviour of mandarin orange in Western mid-hills specifically in Tanahun and Lamjung District along Dumre-Besishahar road corridors. The specific objectives of the study were to, study the marketing systems of the mandarin orange, assess and compare contractual arrangements between producers and traders, and study the pricing behaviour of mandarin orange in different selected markets. This study was conducted through household survey and market monitoring at selected market points. For the conduction of household survey altogether 61 mandarin orange growers were selected comprising of 24 from Kalimati, 17 from Bhoteodar and 20 from Besishahar sites of the Tanahun and Lamjung districts along Dumre-Besishahar road corridors. Mandarin orange growers were interviewed on different aspects of marketing systems, disposal pattern and contractual arrangements during two successive years 2057 and 2058 by using interview schedule. Besides, market monitoring on different aspects of marketing of mandarin orange and its price was carried out in four selected market points for the period of Mangsir 2056 to Magh 2058 on three-day interval. The results of this study showed that current marketing system of the study area was not efficient and rudimentary in nature, leading to seasonal glut and chaotic market price. There was no professionalism, specialized marketing function and functionaries. In some cases, a number of market functionaries were involved in the same function and in other cases there was lack of professionalism developed in marketing function. The persistent features of current marketing system were; leading roles of private sector, lack of co-ordination among market support services, price variation, unbalanced demand and supply situation. The contractual system was most prevalent in the study area. But the result showed that farmers with relatively better access to the market do not prefer the contract system and practice self-marketing. Though, the contractual system transfers risks to the traders and reduces the burden of harvesting of the produce it is not beneficial to the producers and it is advisable to reduce the dependency on contractors. The price behaviour analysis showed that there is spatial and temporal variation in the retail and wholesale price of mandarin orange. The retail and wholesale price movement along the periods showed that during the peak period the price of the mandarin orange is low and considerable rise in off-season. Due to this farmers could not get better price of their produce because there was not practice of storage. So, it is advisable to practice storage of mandarin orange.