Household-Level Dynamics of Crop Commercialization: A Study of East Siang, Upper Siang, and Lower Dibang Valley

Abstract

In this paper, the extent of commercialisation of crops at the household level in the three districts of Arunachal Pradesh viz, East Siang, Upper Siang and Lower Dibang Valley is analyzed based on primary data collected from a sample of 360 households. The extent of commercialisation is measured by taking indicators such as participation of households in crop marketing, marketing by farm sizes, marketing by crop types etc. Household Commercialisation Index (HCI), has been constructed to measure the degree of commercialisation by the sample households. The study has shown that 79 per cent of farming households are engaged in crop marketing while the rest 21 per cent do not participate in crop marketing that is they are operating at full subsistence level. The analysis of crop marketing by farm size revealed that marginal farmers have the lowest participation in the market with only 27 farmers participating in the market which accounts for just 6.9 per cent of the total sample households while all the large farmers are completely engaged in crop marketing. The level of crop marketing varies positively with the farm size. The study of crop-specific commercialisation shows that the proportion of households involved in the marketing of cash crops is highest in the entire study area (62.20 per cent) while pulses are the least marketed crop among the sample households (6.82 per cent). The highest HCI values are observed in oilseeds and cash crops while food grains have the lowest HCI values. The result of the logistic regression indicated that the size of the operated area, worker-to-population ratio, and the education level of the household head were found to have a positive and significant effect on the extent of crop commercialisation across all three districts while the coefficients of family size and distance from the market are found to be negative meaning that an increase these factors will cause a decline in the extent of commercialisation.