Abstract :
The present study was conducted in Belagavi district of Northern Karnataka during the year 2018-19 to find out the socio-economic characteristics and marketing behaviour of sweet potato growers. Based on the highest area under cultivation two taluks namely Belagavi and Khanapur were purposively selected and from each taluk, three villages were selected and from each village, twenty sweet potato growers were selected randomly. Thus,the total sample size constitutes 120 respondents for the study. The data were collected using pre tested structured interview schedule personally by researcher. The collected data were analysed using appropriate statistical tools. The results of study revealed that 63.33 per cent of the sweet potato growers were middle age group, 42.50 per cent of the respondents were studied upto middle school. Further, 38.33 per cent of the respondents had semi medium land holding, nearly half (48.33%) of the respondents belonged medium farming experience, nearly two fourth (47.50%) of the respondents had medium economic motivation, slight more than two fifth (42.50%) of the respondents had medium risk orientation and more than half (55.00%) of the sweet potato growers had medium cosmopoliteness. In marketing behaviour, 50.00 per cent of the respondents get marketing information from others who visit the market, majority (84.17%) of the respondents transport their produce through minitempo, cent per cent sell their produce immediately after harvest, nearly three forth (88.33%) of the respondents sell their produce to commission agent and cent per cent sell their produce at APMC, more than two third (70.83%) of the respondents said middlemen involvement was higher extent, slight more than three fourth (76.67%) of the respondents determined their price through open auction, Three fifth (60.83%) of the respondents take self-decision for selling their produce and cent per cent of the respondents get delayed payment for their produce.
Keyword :
Socio-economic characteristics, Marketing behaviour, Sweet potato growers