A.Kafle

DOI

ABSTRACT

Questionnaire based field survey among 100 farmers, 50 each from Kristhinachnechaur and Nirmalpokhari VDC was conducted with the purpose of analyzing production and market situation of mandarin orange using simple random sampling techniques. The number of productive trees per unit area (ropani 2) was found higher in Nirmalpokhari (55 trees). Similarly, the cost of production and return were also higher in Nirmalpokhri which were Rs.4427.48 and Rs.14685.96 per ropani, respectively. Pre-harvest contract was the most common mode of selling oranges by the farmers. The marketing margin per kg was found higher in Kristhinachnechaur VDC (Rs.11.43) whereas the producers’ share was higher in Nirmalpokhari (56.4%) indicating better marketing efficiency of the mandarin oranges as compared to both. Cobb-Douglas function was used to analyze factor of production. Number of production trees, labor, and manures were significant factors affecting production Kristhinachnechaur while in Nirmalpokhari number of productive plants was highly significant factors of production. The output elasticity of production was less than one i.e 0.952 for Kristhinachnechaur and 0.725 for Nirmalpokhari, indicating decreasing returns to scale which provides enough space for the expansion of production with the proper utilization of productive resources.

Keywords: Mandarin orange, marketing margin, return to scale, production efficiency.