Inter and intra – year fluctuations in arrivals and prices of groundnut in

Thiruvannamalai district (T.N.)G. SRINIVASAN AND K.R. SUNDARAVARADARAJAN

Oilseed crops play an important role in the agricultural

economy of India. Oilseed prices are widely

affected by domestic arrivals and also by the world market

prices after globalization.

The study of pattern of market arrivals of groundnut

and the relationship between the quantities of market

arrivals and the price of the crop at different points of

time helps us to know the extent of inter and intra year

variation in them. The same was noticed by Agarwal

and Hari Om (1990) and Shelke and Kalyankumar (2000).

Such studies are useful to formulate economic policies

and are beneficial for consumers, producers, traders and

the government. The farmers will be aware about the

optimum time to sell their produce to get maximum price

for their produce by such studies.

In the light of the above facts, a study was carried

out in Thiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu state with

a view to study the inter and intra year fluctuations in

market arrivals and monthly wholesales prices of

groundnut in the district and to study the relationship

between market arrivals and prices of groundnut.

METHODOLOGY

Thiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu was

purposively selected because it has been a leading district

in groundnut area and production among all other

districts.The time series (secondary) data on market

arrivals and whole sale prices of groundnut for each month

from 1993 to 2007 for the Thiruvannamalai district were

collected from the Thiruvannamalai District Market

Committee, Thiruvannamalai. The month wise 15 years

total were added to arrive at the total of all months of the

period under study. Percentage variation for arrivals and

prices for each month were also calculated. The

relationship between whole sale prices and market arrivals

of groundnut was studied using simple correlation

coefficient technique.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The market arrivals of groundnut and their

coefficient of variation during the different months of

the period under study is presented in Table 1. It is revealed

that inter year variation in market arrivals of groundnut

was between 23.67 and 45.67 per cent of the average

annual arrivals during the period 1993 to 2007. The

variation in market arrivals was directly related with the

annual production of groundnut in the district. The

coefficient of correlation between annual arrivals and

annual prices for the period 1993 to 2007 revealed that

market arrivals and prices of groundnut were negatively

correlated. It indicates that the increase in arrival tends

to decrease in price and vive versa. The same result

were noticed by Pagire (1994), Rao (1993) and

Suryaprakash and Venkatram (1979) in case of potato

and Shelke and Kalyan kumar (2000) in safflower. The

intra year coefficient of variation in the market arrivals

of groundnut was between 35.72 and 62.34 per cent of

Correspondence to:

G. SRINIVASAN, Department of Agricultural Economics,

Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai University,

ANNAMALAI NAGAR (T.N.) INDIA

Authors’ affil iations:

K.R. SUNDARAVARADARAJAN, Department of

Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Annamalai

University, ANNAMALAI NAGAR (T.N.) INDIA

�HIND INSTITUTE OF COMMERCE AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT�

ABSTRACTA study was carried out in Thiruvannamalai district of Tamil Nadu State with a view to study the inter and intra year fluctuations

in market arrivals and monthly whole sale prices of groundnut and to study the relationship between market arrivals and prices

of groundnut. Inter year variation in market arrivals of groundnut was between 23.67 and 45.67 per cent of the average annual

arrivals during the period 1993 to 2007. The coefficient of correlation between annual arrivals and annual prices was negative.

There was a clear seasonality in the pattern of arrivals of groundnut. The inter year coefficient of variation of prices varied

between 35.12 and 52.16 per cent. The intra year variation in market prices ranged between 52.14 and 88.25 per cent. The lowest

price for groundnut was observed during March and the highest in the month of October.

Key words : Coefficient of correlation, Whole sale prices, Market arrivals, Inter and Intra year fluctuations

Accepted : October, 2010

International Journal of Commerce and Business Management (October, 2010) Vol. 3 Issue 2 : 264-266research article

265

�HIND INSTITUTE OF COMMERCE AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT�Internat. J. Com. & Bus. Manage., 3(2) October, 2010

G. SRINIVASAN AND K.R. SUNDARAVARADARAJAN

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�HIND INSTITUTE OF COMMERCE AND BUSINESS MANAGEMENT�Internat. J. Com. & Bus. Manage., 3(2) October, 2010

INTER & INTRA YEAR FLUCTUATIONS IN ARRIVALS & PRICES

the total arrivals during 1993 to 2007 (Table 1).

The lowest market arrivals of groundnut were

recorded during 1993 which was 4073.66 tonnes while

the maximum arrivals 4300.25 tonnes were recorded

during 2001. There was a clear seasonality in the pattern

of arrivals of groundnut.

Price behaviour of groundnut:

The wholesale prices of groundnut and the

percentage variation in different months of the period

under study are presented in Table 2. It revealed that the

inter year coefficient of variation varied between 35.12

and 52.16 per cent of the overall average of the prices

during 1993 to 2007. Price of a crop did not vary much

from year to year but fluctuated during different months

of the same year. It could be seen that intra year variation

in market prices ranged between 52.14 and 88.25 per

cent. The lowest price for groundnut was observed in

March and maximum price was in the month of October.

Relationship between market arrivals and whole

sale market prices:

The coefficient of correlation between market arrivals

and average monthly whole sale market prices for

different years of period under study are presented in

Table 3 which revealed that market arrivals and prices

were negatively correlated in all the years. It indicated

that increase in arrivals lead to reduction in prices and

decrease in arrivals of groundnut lead to increases in

prices.

High degree of negative correlation was observed

Table 3 : Coefficient of correlation between market arrivals

and prices of groundnut in Thiruvannamalai

district

Years Coefficient of correlation (r)

1993 -0.91

1994 -0.92

1995 -0.94

1996 -0.96

1997 -0.78

1998 -0.98

1999 -0.82

2000 -0.94

2001 -0.91

2002 -0.82

2003 -0.72

2004 -0.85

2005 -0.84

2006 -0.77

2007 -0.85

during 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2001 while

moderate degree of negative correlation was recorded

during 1997, 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion it is concluded that there

existed a definite seasonal pattern in the market arrival

of groundnut during different months of the fifteen years

taken for study. There was negative relationship between

market arrivals and price.

REFERENCES

Agarwal, N.L. and Hari Om (1990). Pattern of market arrivals

and prices of rapeseed and mustard in Bharatpur

district (Rajasthan). Indian J. agric. Mktg., 4(2): 140-

146.

Pagire, B.V. (1994). An analysis of arrivals and price of

vegetables in Gultekdi market in pune. Maharastra

J. agric. Economics, 6 (1): 53.

Rao, V.H. (1993) Market arrivals and price movement (A case

study) Kurukshetra, 3: 12-14.

Shelke, R.D and Kalyankumar, S.P. (2000). Inter and intra year

fluctuations in arrivals and prices of safflower in

Maharastra, Oilseed Res., 17 (1) : 145-147.

Suryaprakash, S. and Venkataram, V. (1979). An analysis of

prices and arrivals of potato in Karnataka. Indian J.

Mktg., 9(5) : 14-18.

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