Market arrivals and price behaviour of coriander seeds in Rajasthan, India

Abstract

Present study was undertaken to study seasonality in arrivals and prices of coriander seeds in Rajasthan, a second largest coriander producer in India, using monthly data from January, 2008 to June, 2019. The results of the study depicted the typical seasonal pattern in coriander arrivals. seasonality index shows more than two hundred percent arrivals during peak months i.e. from February to April. Almost 50 to 60 per cent of annual productions arrives in markets during March, April and May months. The variation in prices was comparatively lower than arrivals. Following the law of demand, lowest index in prices was measured in February and highest was seen in November. Seasonal Index for prices varies between 88 to 111 per cent. The coefficient of variation was measured high in arrivals than prices. The prices has shown increasing trend till 2014 but started declining in later years resulted in decreasing supply in the studied market in recent years. There was inverse relationship between arrivals and prices in five out of six studied markets. Findings of this study highlights lower prices during peak arrival seasons adversely affects the income of coriander growers in the states, consequently coriander acreage in the state is shrinking. Therefore it is recommend that coriander seed should be covered under price policy support for adherence to ceiling and floor price so that further decline in area under this crop can be arrested.