kilograms. The average productivity of the crop for the marginal, small, medium and large farmers had been separately estimated as 1818, 1955, 2009 and 1891 kilograms per acre respectively. It shows that compared
to medium and small farms, per acre productivity in marginal and large farms were relatively lesser. The selling price of paddy had shown substantial variations in the area depending on the varieties of sown seeds, time of sales and purchasers of the product. Among the two seed varieties
sown in the study area viz,
Jyothi (12-85) and
Uma(D1), the average price of
Jyothi had been 20630
percent higher then that of Uma during the harvesting season. While cooperative societies purchased paddy from farmers at the rate of Rs 650 per quintal, open market prices varied from Rs to Rs per quintal. About 97 percent of the marginal farmers sold their product either to local private traders or to commission agents of outside rice mills immediately after harvest and the average price they received is estimated as Rs per quintal. Nearly 85 percent of the small farmers and 80 percent of the medium farmers also sold their product to private agencies and the average prices they obtained are estimated as Rs and Rs per quintal respectively. It is found that 25 percent of the sample large farmers had sold their paddy to cooperative societies and another 58 percent of them sold their product to commission agents. The average price they received amounted to Rs per quintal. Considering all of the four
categories of farmers together, 61.5 percent of the sample farmers sold their product to commission agents of outside mills, 25.6 percent sold it to local private traders and another 12.2 percent sold to cooperative societies. The average price they received is found to be Rs per quintal. While estimating
the value of product, the price of straw is not considered as none of the sample farmers could sell it at any price due to the dearth of demand. More than 60 percent of the sample farmers retained a portion of their product, which ranges from 3 to
10 quintals for household consumption. The market price of paddy is taken to calculate the imputed value of the product used for self-consumption. The average value of product per acre of the sample paddy farmers in the study area for the last summer crop is estimated to be Rs 11412. A comparison among the four categories of farmers shows that the per acre value of product for marginal farmers which is estimated as Rs had been 7.6 percent less than the overall average whereas
the value of the product for medium farmers which is found to be Rs per acre was 5.1 percent higher than that of the overall average. Average per acre productivity, selling price per quintal and income from paddy
cultivation for the marginal, small, medium and large farmers are given in table 4.7
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