Economic Affairs, Vol. 64, No. 1, pp. 107-115, March 2019 DOI: 10.30954/0424-2513.1.2019.14 ©2019 New Delhi Publishers. All rights reserved Production and Marketing System of Khasi Mandarin in Eastern Himalayas: An Economic Study from Assam Rajiv Kumar Rana 1 and Sanjeev Kumar 2* 1 Dept. of Agricultural Economics and Farm Management, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat, Assam-785013, India 2 Dept. of Social Sciences, Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture & Forestry, Nauni, Solan, Himachal Pradesh-173230, India *Corresponding author: sharmask93@rediffmail.com ABSTRACT The present study was conducted to analyze the production and marketing system of Khasi Mandarin in Eastern Himalayas of India. The data was collected through pre-tested schedule by personally interviewing the farmers selected through multistage sampling technique. The objectives were studied using analytical tools like semi log exponential function, marketing cost, marketing margin, price spread and marketing efciency analysis using Acharya’s and Shepherd’s approach The results of the study revealed that the compound growth rate of area (-1.42%) and production (-0.36%) of Khasi mandarin was negative and had badly afected the Khasi mandarin cultivation in the study area. However, the positive growth rate of productivity (1.08%) was responsible for maintenance of production at a decent level. The marketing efciency estimated by using both Acharya’s approach and Shepherd’s approach was found highest in Channel- I (Producer - Retailer – Consumer) followed by channel-II (Producer – Merchant wholesalers– Retailers – Consumers) and channel –III (Producer – Pre-harvest contractors – Wholesalers – Retailers – Consumers), respectively. The producer’s share in consumer’s rupee was also maximum in channel-I (50.43%) followed by channel-II (36.55%) and channel-III (20.38%). It was found that price spread was maximum in channel III (` 5080.00) followed by channel II (` 3820.00) and channel I (` 2537.50). Keywords: Khasi mandarin, marketing channels, multistage sampling, price spread Citrus are among the most important fruit trees in the world horticulture scenario. The cultivation of citrus dates back to pre-historic times. The Mandarin, the Citron and the Pomelo are the ancestors of the most other commercial citrus varieties. Globally, citrus is cultivated in 114 countries and among these, 53 countries grow citrus commercially with a total production of more than 115 million tonnes. Afer Mexico, India is the leading producer of citrus fruits with an area of about 1.06 million hectares and production of about 12.75 million tonnes annually. In the world, citrus is dominated by sweet orange with a 64% contribution followed by mandarins with 20%, limes and lemons with 10% and rest of the 6% contributed by grapefruit and other citrus fruits (Anonymous, 2016). Mandarin orange is considered to be originated from South Eastern Asia and the Philippines. Mandarins are grown in the tropical/sub-tropical region 35°N to 35°S of equator. Brazil, China, Egypt, Japan, India, Iran, Italy, Mexico, Spain, Thailand, Turkey, and USA are the main Mandarin producing countries. During 2009, the total acreage under the Mandarin was 2159.17 thousand hectares. The area under Mandarin in China was maximum i.e., 1374.16 thousand hectares (63.64%), followed by Spain 122 thousand hectares (5.65%). The area under Mandarin in Italy was 38.300 thousand hectares (1.77%) and in Argentina, it was 32 thousand hectares (1.48%) (Anonymous, 2016). In India, the total mandarin production is 4754 thousand tonne on 429 thousand ha area with 11.08 t/ha productivity (Anonymous, 2016-17b). In India, Punjab is the highest producer of Mandarin with a production of 1140.31 thousand tonne on 49.36 thousand ha area, followed by Maharashtra,