Abstract

A study was undertaken to analyse the price behaviour of lac in terms of trend, seasonality and cycles in important primary and secondary markets of Jharkhand. The secondary data on monthly average prices of lac at primary and secondary markets were collected for a period of 20 years spanning from 1988-1989 to 2007-2008. A positive trend has been shown in prices of both the strains of lac i.e. rangeeni and kusmi lac during the study period which was statistically significant at 1 % probability level for all three levels of market. Growth rate of rangeeni lac prices at growers, assembling centers and manufacturing centers were found to be 9.94, 10.10 and 10.06 % per annum, respectively while for kusmi lac it was 10.13, 10.11 and 10.48 % per annum, respectively.  Only one peak of prices have been observed at growers and assembling centers level while two peaks of prices have been observed in case of manufacturing centers for rangeeni lac. For kusmi lac one peak of prices have been observed at growers and manufacturing centers level while two peaks of prices have been observed in case of assembling centers. No regular cycles have been observed in the rangeeni and kusmi lac prices during the study period. Intra year price variation was more at growers and assembling centers level in comparison to manufacturing centers. The seasonality in prices can be reduced by sustained production, production in diverse agro-climatic condition, primary processing of lac at village level and integration of lac production in various lac growing regions of the country.

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