Jharkhand Journal of Development and Management Studies XISS, Ranchi, Vol. 15, No.4, December 2017, pp.7493-7505 VEGETABLE MARKETING IN JHARKHAND: A MICRO STUDY OF MARKETABLE AND MARKETED SURPLUS OF SELECTED VEGETABLES Prakash Chandra Deogharia 1 In a country which has a predominance of small land holdings and surplus labour, horticulture and vegetable cultivation, particularly the latter is most suitable. Jharkhand is one of the major producers of vegetables in our country. About 3.2% of the gross cropped area of the State is under vegetable crop. The major vegetable crops grown in the state in order of area covered by them are potato, tomato, lady finger, peas, cauliflower, brinjal, & cabbage. Growing of vegetables has added significance from the point of view of its contribution to national income and employment generation. Cultivation of vegetables is highly profitable. It has the potential of earning almost four times more income per hectare than food crops. Vegetable marketing is a complex issue because of perishability factor. Farmers producing vegetables market it only after consumption. Thus in case of vegetables, marketed surplus is very important. It is the quantum of marketed surplus that decides the choice of different market channels for the farmers. The present paper analyses the marketable and the marketed surplus of selected vegetables and its distribution in different marketing channels in three districts of Jharkhand. Using multistage random sampling method 150 vegetable cultivators were selected from Ranchi, Lohardaga and West Singhbhum districts of Jharkhand for the study. The study found that price has no impact on marketed surplus. There is a need to restructurre primary co-operative marketing societies. Keywords : Vegetables, Marketing Efficiency, Marketing Channel, Marketing Cost Introduction Agricultural marketing is an integral part of agricultural production. Our efforts towards increasing agricultural production cannot be sustained for long unless increase in production results in increasing incomes for farmers and ensures remunerative prices and fair deals in the disposal of their produce. In a predominately agricultural country the emphasis on raising farm productivity has always received considerable attention from policy makers and planners. This has resulted into adoption of scientific inputs throughout the world and in increasing degree has been accepted as the most important component for raising agricultural production. India is the world’s second largest producer of vegetable, next to China. Vegetables are grown throughout the year even then the per capita availability is about 120 gm/head / day in contrast to the recommended level of 300 gm./head/day (Kaith, 1996). So there is ample scope of improving productivity of vegetables in our country. 7493 1 Associate Professor, Dept. of Economics, Vinoba Bhave University, Hazaribagh E-mail : prakashdgh@rediffmail.com