Economics and Marketing of Selected Spices and Traditional Crops: Insights into Farmers from Haryana, India

The study aims to measure the profitability of spice crops, their marketing channels, marketing efficiency, and price spread effects. The study was based on a field survey of 320 spice farmers of Haryana state in India carried out between 2020 and 2021. The authors presented analytical purposes, compound growth rate, cost–benefit ratio, marketing channels, marketing efficiency and price spread effect. The growth of area and production of spice crops is not very strong compared to the profitability of spice crops. Cost–benefit ratio shows that spice crops are more profitable than traditional crops for farmers. However, due to high cost of cultivation, volatile prices, and fear of crop failure, area under spices cultivation is very small. Price spread effect is very high in channel I and II. The majority of farmers adopted inefficient marketing channel (low price for producer and high price for consumer) due to lack of storage facility and weak financial health. The role of government is important for protecting the rights of producers as well as consumers. Mediators’ role should be minimized by government policy in the marketing of spice crops in Haryana so that farmers can charge the right price for their spice crops.