Constraints in guava marketing and suggestions to overcome them: A study of Ahilyanagar district of Maharashtra

Introduction

Guava (Psidium guajava L.), often called the "poor man's apple," is India's fourth most important fruit crop, valued for its high vitamin C content and adaptability to varied agroclimatic zones. Maharashtra, and Ahilyanagar district in particular, is a major guava-producing region, contributing about 40 per cent of the state's total guava production, yet growers continue to face substantial post-harvest and marketing hurdles that erode their share of the consumer rupee. Efficient marketing is central to translating farm-level productivity gains into household income, but Indian fruit marketing systems remain fragmented, dominated by long channels, informal price discovery, and weak infrastructure. Recent studies on guava and other fruit crops consistently report that price fluctuation, exploitation by middlemen, delayed payments, inadequate storage and processing facilities, and poor market information access are the dominant marketing constraints nationwide. Understanding these constraints from the grower's perspective, along with locally relevant solutions, is essential for designing extension interventions and policy support such as minimum support price mechanisms and cooperative marketing structures.

Objective

To identify the constraints faced by guava growers in marketing their produce and to elicit suggestions from growers to overcome these constraints.

Review of Literature

Constraint studies across horticultural crops in India reveal recurring patterns. Dhara et al. (2016) [2] found that coconut growers ranked absence of a government procurement system (100%), lack of an exclusive market (99%), and absence of cooperative marketing (87%) as top problems. Similarly, Dhurwey et al. (2016) [3] reported that cabbage growers were constrained by lack of storage facilities (72%) and poor grading/standardization awareness (52%). Gangisetty et al. (2016) [4] documented high marketing costs, unscientific weighing, and poor market information as leading groundnut marketing problems. Specific to guava and related fruit crops, Chengappa (2017) [1] found non-availability of labour as the top-ranked constraint, followed by irregular power supply and high input costsa pattern strikingly similar to the present study. Sapte (2018) [6] , studying pomegranate growers, ranked exploitation by middlemen first, followed by high transportation cost and market price fluctuation. More recent work reinforces these findings: a 2023 study on fruit crop growers found fluctuating price (Rank I), delayed cash payment (Rank II), and exploitation by middlemen (Rank III) to be the principal marketing constraints. A value chain study in Bengaluru similarly identified price fluctuation as the major guava marketing constraint, followed by inadequate market information and delayed payments. Studies from Haryana and other regions further note the absence of minimum support price mechanisms and poor market organization as chronic problems in guava marketing. On the suggestion side, growers across studies consistently call for minimum support price fixation, cooperative and collective marketing arrangements, cold storage and processing infrastructure, and better dissemination of market information.

Methodology

An ex post facto research design was used since the marketing behaviour under study had already occurred. Ahilyanagar district was purposively selected as it ranks first in Maharashtra in guava area and production. Two talukas -Kopergaon and Rahatawere selected, and from each, three villages were chosen based on guava area and production. Twenty guava growers were randomly selected from each of the six villages, yielding a total sample of 120 respondents. Constraints were studied on a three-point continuum (very much a problem, somewhat a problem, not a problem), scored 2, 1, and 0 respectively. Total scores for each constraint were tabulated, and constraints were ranked in descending order of score. Suggestions to overcome these constraints were elicited separately and expressed as frequencies and percentages. The absence of an organized fruit market (85.00%) and high transportation costs (80.83%) point to weak market infrastructure in the study area, a concern also raised in a Ministry of Food Processing Industries assessment of guava infrastructure gaps, which found inadequate transportation solutions and absence of support agencies as major managerial issues for guava growers nationally. The relatively lower ranking of "lack of access to market information" (10.33%) in this study contrasts with several other regions where market information deficits rank much higher, likely because guava growers here have high mobile phone and internet penetration (100% and 99.17% respectively, as shown in the marketing behaviour findings), reducing information asymmetry even though structural market problems persist. The dominance of infrastructural and price-related constraints over informational ones is a nuanced finding: growers in Ahilyanagar are reasonably well-connected digitally but still lack the physical market institutions (storage, processing, organized mandis) needed to convert that information advantage into better returns. 1, indicating that growers view infrastructure investmentrather than information dissemination aloneas the critical lever for improving their marketing position. The relatively low emphasis on market information access (19.17%) as a suggestion further corroborates the earlier finding that information is not the binding constraint for this cohort of growers; rather, physical and institutional market access is. This finding has direct policy implications: extension strategies here should prioritize facilitating Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) for collective bargaining, backward linkages to cold chains, and advocacy for guavaspecific price support, rather than solely digital-advisory interventions.

Results and Discussion

Constraints Faced by Guava Growers

Suggestions to Overcome Marketing Constraints

Conclusion and Implications

Given the focus on FPOs, these constraint-and-suggestion patterns strongly support a case for promoting guava grower cooperatives/FPOs in Ahilyanagar district as an institutional responsesince collective marketing, shared cold storage, and aggregated bargaining power directly address the top four ranked constraints (labour, price fluctuation, market absence, and transport cost) identified by growers themselves.

References

1. Chengappa KK. Marketing behaviour of coffee growers in Kodagu district of Karnataka state. Rahuri: Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth; 2017.
2. Dhara R, Umamageswari M, Porchezian S. Marketing problems encountered by coconut growers in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu. Adv Res J Soc Sci. 2016;7(1):5154.
3. Dhurwey C, Choudhary VK, Shrey R. Marketing imperfection of cabbage crop in Bemetara district of Chhattisgarh. Indian J Econ Dev. 2016;12(1a):129-134.
4. Gangisetty N, Narayana Reddy T, Sreenivasa Reddy G. Production and marketing problems of groundnut growers. Int Res J Agric Econ Stat. 2016;7(2):217-222.
5. Ministry of Food Processing Industries. Assessment studies for identifying gaps in infrastructure and technology for guava. New Delhi: Government of India; 2024. https://www.mofpi.gov.in/sites/default/files/study_on_i nfrastructure_gaps_-_guava.pdf
6. Sapte AU. Marketing behaviour of pomegranate growers. Rahuri: Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth; 2018.
7. Sharma A, Kumar V, Yadav S. Constraints and suggestions of fruit crop growers. Int J Environ Clim Change. 2023.
8. Suresh KP, Manjunath L. An economic analysis of production and marketing of guava in Pune district of Maharashtra state. Krishikosh; 2022. https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/items/aadc57f4-31a24a56-9ed4-d4d12e46ef87