Telangana is the third largest cotton growing state in India after Maharashtra and Gujarat. The state is blessed with ambient soil and climatic conditions supporting crop growth. After the introduction of Bt larger area under millets, pulses and oilseeds was diverted towards cotton. Hence, cotton has become the major crop of the state after paddy. For the current study, Nalgonda, Nagarkurnool, Adilabad and Sangareddy districts were purposively chosen considering the soil type, irrigation availability and acreage under cotton crop. From the chosen districts different farming situations were identified viz., FS-1 (Irrigated red soils), FS-2 (Rainfed red soils), FS-3 (Chalka soils), FS-4 (Irrigated black soils) and the FS-5 (Rainfed black soils). From each of the chosen district two mandals and from each selected mandal two villages possessing farming situations were purposively chosen for the study. Primary data on marketing of cotton crop was collected from 350 sample farmers for the agricultural year 2020-21. Using the data marketing channels were identified and marketing margin, price spread and marketing efficiency using Acharya's approach were worked out Two channels viz., Channel I: Producer → Input dealer → CCI → Ginning mills, Channel II: Producer → CCI → Ginning mills were identified. Most of the farmers across FS-1, FS-2, FS- 4 and FS-5 sold their produce via channel II i.e., through direct marketing channel of CCI except the FS-3 farmers due to lower marketable surplus. Marketing channel I had higher price spread over channel II due to involvement of middle men(input dealers). In contrast, marketing efficiency for channel II was highest over channel I. In channel II, marketing efficiency was highest in FS -1 (21.03) while, it was least in FS -3 (19.83). The study concluded that most of the farmers preferred direct marketing channel (channel I) involving CCI over channel II due to improved marketing efficiency.
Radha et al. (Wed,) studied this question.