Marketing Trade and Post-Harvest Loss of Fish in Morang District, Nepal

Abstract

This study was carried out in Morang district of Nepal. A list of all farmers involved in fish farming in the study areas was collected from PMAMP fish zone office Morang. Data were obtained by sampling 70 farmers; 25 from Rangeli municipality, 25 from Dhanpalthan and 20 from Katahari rural municipalities involved in commercial or semi-commercial fish farming. Also 15 consumers and 15 traders were taken by simple random sampling technique. Various analytical software's were utilized for the analysis of the data obtained. SPSS, MS-EXCEL, STATA was used to get the analyzed result. Long marketing channels are one of the reasons for increased marketing costs and bring inefficiency in marketing which results in the loss in the consumers' welfare and producers' share. In long marketing channel farmers get 45%-55% of the consumer price and the rest was absorbed by the traders present in the identified channels of marketing. Market channel signifies how the product is transfer in the market from the farmer level to consumer-level through different levels. Out of total respondents, 42.86% of respondents responded that the fish is sold to the commission agent/middleman followed by the wholesaler to retailer and finally to the consumer. A basic skill for minimizing the post-harvest loss of fish from spoilage was ice and refrigerator. There is a significant price variation between the price received by farmers with and without the middleman. The findings will be beneficial for planners, policymakers, project implementers, farmers and donors to formulate, policy, strategy and plan; it implies awareness among farmers from not being exploited in the market system.