Year: 2025 | Month: December | Volume 12 | Issue 4

Marketing Dynamics and Resource Use Efficiency of Maize Fodder in the Himalayan Region

Govind Kumar1* Pawan Kumar Sharma2 Sudhakar Dwivedi3 and Punit Choudhary4
DOI:10.30954/2394-8159.04.2025.4

Abstract:

Maize fodder plays a vital role in sustaining livestock productivity, particularly in regions facing chronic fodder deficits such as India. The present study evaluates the economic viability, marketing dynamics, and resource use efficiency of maize fodder cultivation across three agro-climatic zones — temperate, intermediate, and sub-tropical — of the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir. The study was conducted during the agricultural year 2024–25 using a multistage random sampling technique, covering 120 farmers, and primary data were collected through structured surveys and analysed using cost–benefit analysis, marketing efficiency measures, and the Cobb–Douglas production function. The findings revealed that maize fodder cultivation is economically viable across all zones, with cost–benefit ratios ranging from 1:2.39 in the intermediate zone to 1:3.09 in the sub-tropical zone, indicating higher profitability in the latter owing to lower cultivation costs and higher yields. The marketing analysis identified two channels, of which the direct channel (Producer → Consumer) was more efficient, being characterised by lower marketing costs, reduced price spread, and a higher producer’s share in the consumer’s rupee. Resource use efficiency analysis showed that seed was consistently under-utilised across all three zones, while farmyard manure (FYM), irrigation, and plant protection were over-utilised; fertilizer and labour were under-utilised in the temperate and intermediate zones but over-utilised in specific contexts of the sub-tropical zone. All three zones exhibited decreasing returns to scale (Σβi < 1). The study highlights the need to reallocate inputs — increasing use of the under-utilised inputs and rationalising the over-utilised ones — while promoting direct marketing channels to enhance farmers’ income. However, the findings are limited to selected districts of the Jammu region and are based on cross-sectional data for a single agricultural year, which may restrict their generalisability.

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