Cotton Market Research Articles

Export Demand Elasticity Estimation for U.S. Cotton

U.S. cotton exports have been characterized by large fluctuations in the last two decades. However, the latest available elasticity estimates of U.S. cotton exports are from 1982. New and more precise estimates of export demand elasticities for U.S. cotton are necessary to forecast future U.S. cotton exports and accurately analyze potential political policy and market changes. This study provides updated estimates of the elasticity of foreign demand for U.S. cotton in selected major cotton importing countries using an Armington framework for the years 1978 to 2017. Additionally, this study examines the evolution of the export demand elasticities over time in a dynamic framework of time-varying parameters (TVP) based on the Kalman filter methodology. Our results indicate that short-run price elasticities of foreign demand for U.S. cotton are price inelastic for major cotton importing countries, except for Pakistan. Countries with lower export demand elasticities are associated with relatively large U.S. cotton market shares for these countries. The import demand elasticity for U.S. cotton in recent years is becoming less elastic, implying that cotton import demand in major importing countries has become less price sensitive than it was historically, and the U.S. has competitive advantages in these major cotton importing countries over other suppliers.

The trilogy of China cotton markets: The lead–lag relationship among spot, forward, and futures markets

AbstractChina is a leading participant in the world cotton market. China’s distinctive regulatory structure and procedures and business environment provide an opportunity to explore some unique market dynamics. This study investigates the interrelationship among the spot, futures, and forward cotton markets in China over a period of a major policy change: A temporary State reserve program for cotton that was established in 2011 and ended in 2014. This government intervention significantly distorted the way farmers, manufacturers, and speculators interacted and was not sustainable. Overall, our results support futures market’s dominant role in the price discovery process.

Transgenic Cotton: From Biotransformation Methods to Agricultural Application.

Transgenic cotton is among the first transgenic plants commercially adopted around the world. Since it was first introduced into the field in the middle of the 1990s, transgenic cotton has been quickly adopted by cotton farmers in many developed and developing countries. Transgenic cotton has offered many important environmental, social, and economic benefits, including reduced usage of pesticides, indirect increase of yield, minimizing environmental pollution, and reducing labor and cost. Agrobacterium-mediated genetic transformation method is the major method for obtaining transgenic cotton. However, pollen tube pathway-mediated method is also used, particularly by scientists in China, to breed commercial transgenic cotton. Although transgenic cotton plants with disease resistance, abiotic stress tolerance, and improved fiber quality have been developed in the past decades, insect-resistant and herbicide-tolerant cottons are the two dominant cottons in transgenic cotton market.

An Analysis of Problems and Constraints Faced by Farmers in Marketing of Agricultural Produce in Punjab

Agriculture as an economic activity is subjected to serious risk of natural conditions and price risk. Some of the important constraints of agricultural marketing system in the country are lack of infrastructure like storage, transportation, quality control, packaging, price risk management, cool chains, market led extension, and condusive framework for promotion of contract farming. The present study was undertaken in the state of Punjab to study the problems of farmers in the marketing of paddy, wheat, maize and cotton. A total sample of 180 farmers from 12 villages of six districts was selected for the study. The sample farmers were further categorized, based on their operational holding, as marginal, small, semi-medium, medium and large farmers. The results from the study indicated that the most important problem identified by the farmers in the marketing of paddy and wheat was the delay in procurement of paddy in the markets followed by the deduction of payments by commission agents due to higher moisture content in the grains. However, the major problem during marketing of basmati was the exploitative practices by the intermediaries followed by lack of public procurement. The problem faced by majority of farmers in the marketing of maize and cotton was the lack of public procurement of the produce and lack of remunerative price of the crop respectively.

The Brazilian cotton marketing initiative: ‘Sou de Algodão’ case

This case shares the experience of Arlindo Moura, president of ABRAPA (Brazilian Association of Cotton Producers), who led the implementation of a plan to incentivize the use of cotton in Brazil. The plan was built after analyzing the relevant cotton value chain, which includes producers, spinners, textile manufacturers, clothing manufacturers, fashion influencers, universities and consumers. A network of service providers and supporters were aligned around the objective of growing the volume of cotton used throughout the chain. The case shows the strategy behind the campaigns and several promotional actions. Students are presented with challenges related to moving the effort forward following a successful program launch and are asked to consider what ABRAPA should consider in order to establish a continuous, long term and self-sustained effort of increasing cotton demand. Marketing, finance and governance issues are included.

What’s in a price? The American raw cotton market in Liverpool and the Anglo-American War

This article argues that an embryonic futures market was present in Liverpool during the Anglo-American War. The analysis of a previously unseen data-set of printed Prices Currents has facilitated not only a price series of raw cotton prices, but an in-depth analysis of the ‘construction’ of those raw cotton prices. By positing a definition of an embryonic futures market and then analysing each of the features of a such a market in turn, this study demonstrates the existence of an embryonic futures market in early nineteenth-century Liverpool.

Effects of Price Transmission and Exchange Rate Elasticities of Three Developing Countries on the World Cotton Trade

This paper examines (i) whether the government interventions in the forms of border protection and as price support have weakened the integrations of domestic cotton markets of China, Brazil and Turkey with the world cotton market and (ii) how a weak cointegration of a domestic market with international market affects the world cotton trade. We address the first question by estimating price and exchange rates transmission elasticities using an error correction model and the second question by conducting a partial equilibrium model. Results indicate that the estimated elasticities are significantly smaller than unitary, which suggests that the cointegration is weak and the law of one price (LOP) does not hold. Furthermore, when cointegration is weak, exchange rate movements have lower impact on exports, imports and prices than they do in the case of strong cointegration.

Reassessing cotton pricing policy in Burkina Faso: How important is price stabilization?

This paper focuses on the parastatal marketing of cotton in Burkina Faso. The parastatal companies have bought cotton at a guaranteed price, announced prior to planting, reducing a key element of risk for producers. The cotton sector reforms in the late 1990s and early 2000s have significantly improved the share of international price received by local producers. However, a number of problems must still be solved to improve the living conditions for rural agricultural producers. The purpose of this paper is to reassess parastatal cotton pricing in Burkina Faso by factoring the implicit benefit that producers have obtained from guaranteed prices which reduces the price variability risk. A mean-variance economic risk model was developed to measure the price risk that would have been associated with selling cotton on international markets rather than selling to parastatal companies at a guaranteed price. Results suggest that risk is often a significant factor in producers’ decision making, particularly over the past decade, when price volatility would have driven risk averse producers out of international markets. The viability of the parastatal markets, contrary to the prevailing literature which suggests that future policy shifts towards increased privatization, needs to consider price stabilization and the price variability risk associated with the international cotton market. Key words: Cotton, price risk, mean-variance model, risk premium, certainty equivalent.

Mild condition dissolution of high molecular weight cotton cellulose in 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium acetate/N,N‐dimethylacetamide solvent system

ABSTRACTTo investigate the effective dissolution of high molecular weight (MW) cellulose macromolecules at ambient conditions, cellulose (DP > 4,000) derived from cotton fiber waste was dissolved in 1‐butyl‐3‐methylimidazolium acetate (BMIMAc)/N,N‐dimethylacetamide (DMAc) solvent in this study. High MW cotton cellulose achieves a solubility between 3% and 5% cellulose concentrations using BMIMAc/DMAc solvent at ambient conditions. Rheological studies showed that all cellulose/solvent solutions displayed a shear thinning behavior. Results from the physical characterization revealed that well‐dissolved cotton cellulose exhibited highly porous structure and the crystalline structure of cotton cellulose was highly disrupted during dissolution and regeneration processes. This study is the first to report on the ability of BMIMAc/DMAc solvent system to dissolve high MW cellulose under ambient conditions, which represents an energy‐saving and environmentally friendly approach. As cellulose used in this study was derived from low quality waste cotton fibers, the potential utilization of such cotton cellulose may create a competitive market for low quality cotton and target advanced applications of cellulose‐based products for green materials and energy. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 2018, 135, 45928.

An analysis of trend in production, consumption and trade of cotton in India

Cotton, which is called as white gold, is one of the most important fibre crops grown in India, known for its trade value than any other fibre crops like, jute and mesta. Cotton cultivation in India is a source of livelihood for a considerable share of the farming community. Besides, the king of textiles, provide employment through textile mills and spinning mills to people in many parts of the country. A positive trend could be observed in the area, production and yield of cotton over the years. In particular, the productivity led growth in production witnesses the development of research activities which provides high yielding varieties and suitable efficient resource utilization techniques. Though improvement in the cotton production could be realized, increased consumption has decreased the export quantity of cotton over the years. Ultimately, cotton imports have increased with a growth rate of 12 per cent per annum, in the last decade. Moreover, the import price of cotton is very much higher than the price at which it is exported. To sum up, necessary steps should be taken to stabilize the cotton market and prevention measures should be taken to protect the crops from pest damage and uncertain natural calamities to stabilize the market from price fluctuations.

Marketing Channels, Marketing Margins, Costs and Price Spreads: A Case Study of Bathinda District of Punjab

<div><p><em>The present study is carried out with the objective of studying </em><em>the marketing channels because farmers producing agricultural produce are scattered in remote villages while consumers are in semi-urban and urban areas. This produce has to reach consumers for its final use and consumption. There are different agencies and functionaries through which produce passes and reach the consumer. Therefore, it is important to study the various functionaries involved in the marketing of cotton crop. Besides, it is important to analyze the costs associated with the services rendered by the market functionaries, marketing margins and price spreads in the marketing of cotton. Such studies are useful for both the producers/sellers and the buyers/consumers because the former are interested in getting the highest price for their produce while the latter are interested in paying as low a price as possible. The present research paper provides some guidelines to the policy makers about the need of efficient marketing system. </em></p></div>

The development of Sūq al-Qaṭṭānīn quarter, Jerusalem

Abstract:Following the discovery of a Mamlūk public bath and a vaulted hall to the south of the Cotton Market in the Old City of Jerusalem, this article proposes a new evaluation of the urban fabric in close proximity to the focal point of the Islamic area ‒ the Ḥaram al-Sharīf. We argue here that what once was considered a project constructed under the supervision of the district governor Saif al-Dīn Tankiz, and financed by the Sultan al-Nāṣir Muḥammad b. Qalāwūn, was in fact initiated by Tankiz. He first erected a double ḥammām, and then a Khān, which was presumably connected to a market street. In its final incarnation, the Sūq was monumental in scale, extending all the way to the Ḥaram. The final product, a market street connecting the Ḥaram with one of the main streets of the city, providing facilities to believers in the form of a double ḥammām and a Khān that served merchants and also pilgrims, was by far the most ambitious project of the Mamlūk era in Jerusalem.

Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert

Reviewed by: Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert Frank W. Garmon Jr. Empire of Cotton: A Global History. Sven Beckert. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014, 615 pages, $35.00, Cloth. Sven Beckert brings together an impressive variety of sources and employs materials from archives on every continent to tell the story of the emergence and evolution of modern capitalism. Cotton is a commodity well suited to understanding these transformations, as it initiated important revolutions in both agriculture and manufacturing. Beckert demonstrates how quickly interrelated and dynamic the global market for cotton became, and suggests that the interconnectedness of world events long predates our current era of globalization. Compelling statistics litter the book's pages and easily convince the reader of cotton's central role in the development of the modern world. Above all the author seeks to explain the origins of modern inequality between the developed global North and the underdeveloped global South in what economic historians have termed the Great Divergence. Beckert works to answer why it was "that the part of the world that had the least to do with cotton—Europe—created and came to dominate the empire of cotton" (xiii-xiv). The answer, for Beckert, is the importance of institutions and powerful states that could intervene to control trade networks and guarantee access to raw materials and cheap labor. Rather than highlighting the role of the entrepreneur or inventor, Beckert describes how powerful European states crafted empires that could challenge the dominance of Asian textile producers. Beckert terms this interventionist approach, based on imperialism and slavery, war capitalism. The author argues that war capitalism, rather than enlightened or democratic institutions, prevailed in the early-modern period and allowed Europeans to enter and then exploit the market for cotton textiles. Demand for cotton accelerated the growth of plantation agriculture [End Page 520] and was a driving force behind the expanding slave trade. Nearly half of all slaves transported to the western hemisphere arrived in the decades after 1780, coinciding both with the birth of industrial manufacturing in Europe and with a tremendous expansion of cotton cultivation in the Americas (93). Ironically, cotton also emerged as the most important good traded for African slaves. Surviving account records from West African slave traders suggest that cotton textiles likely supplied the majority of the value of all goods exchanged (36). Beckert describes war capitalism as a "precondition" for the Industrial Revolution, and notes the institutions developed under war capitalism originated long before the invention of industrial technologies (54). By portraying early-modern empires, slavery, and state power as the central features of global capitalism in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Beckert challenges the traditional narratives surrounding the origins of modern capitalism. Through focusing on cotton, an agricultural staple that held important implications for industrial development, Beckert repositions the conventional focal point of the Industrial Revolution, arguing that "[t]oo often, we ignore the countryside to focus on the city and the miracles of modern industry" (xiii). The author skillfully synthesizes and contextualizes the voluminous literature on cotton production and manufacturing by positioning the narrative as a global story. The result yields fascinating conclusions. The extent to which Asian textile workers out-produced their European contemporaries will astonish many readers familiar with focused case studies of industrial production. Although technological advances revolutionized British manufacturing, and factory methods made European workers the most productive in the world, Asian weavers dominated world output into the nineteenth century. Beckert notes that by 1800 "less than one-tenth of 1 percent of global cotton cloth production came from machines invented on the British Isles" (80). As war capitalism gave way to industrial production, the author argues, manufacturers realized quickly that control of cheap labor was more important than controlling the trade itself. Cheap labor materialized in the fields in the form of African slaves, and in the factories through employing women and children. Beckert argues that the hunt for cheap labor was a defining characteristic in capitalism's development, and observes that the legacy of industrial capitalism is ever present in the market today. [End Page 521] Beckert describes the American Civil War as a critical turning point both for the...

دور السیاسة الحکومیة فی تعزیز القدرة التنافسیة لقطاعات زراعة وتصنیع وتصدیر القطن المصری

ملخص البحث يلقي البحث الضوء علي أربعة أهداف رئيسية أولا: الأهمية الإقتصادية للقطن والسياسات الزراعية المتبعة بشأنه والتطور التاريخي لزراعته ثانيا: إنتاج القطن المصري وأهم الصناعات القائمة عليه ثالثا: دراسة تسويق القطن المصري داخليا وخارجيا والميزة التنافسية له في الأسواق العالمية رابعا: رصد وتقييم السياسات المالية القائمة في قطاع القطن وإقتراح سياسة مالية للنهوض به وإستخلاص أهم تجارب الدول الناجحة في مجال دعم القطن مثل الولايات المتحدة الأمريكية والهند وتركيا والصين ولتحقيق أهداف الباحثة قامت بتوضيح تطورالمساحة المنزرعة من القطن والمراحل التي مر بها إنتاجه والسياسات الزراعية المتبعة بشأنه وأهـم الصناعات القـائمة عليه ومدي مساهمته في الدخل القومي والميزة التنافسية له بالمقارنة ببعض الدول التي تنتج أقطان منافسة للقطن المصري والمؤشرات الاقتصادية لصناعة الغزل والنسيج واستعراض السياسات المالية المطبقة علي القطاعات العاملة في القطن هذا وقد خلصت الباحثة علي أن هناك قصور شمل جميع مراحل إنتاج وتصنيع وتسويق القطن وكذا قصور من القائمين علي تنفيذ السياسات الزراعية المتبعة في القطن المصري وأن الأمر يستوجب تدخل الدولة لإنقاذ القطن المصري من كبوته الحالية للعودة به الي سابق عهده. Absract The research spots light on four main targets. Firstly: the economic importance of cotton, its agricultural politics and the historical development of cotton cultivation. Secondly: Egyptian cotton production and the important industries which depend on it.Thirdly: study of marketing of Egyptian cotton locally and abroad and its competitive edge in the international markets. Fourthly: observation and evaluation of the current financial policies in the cotton sector, suggestion of financial policy to promote it and extracting the most experiments of successful countries in sustain cotton field such as United States,India, Turkey and China. And to achieve targets of researcher, she explained the developme cultivated area of cotton, its production phases, its agricultural policies, the important industries which depend on it, its contribution in the national income, its competitive edge compared to some coun which produce cotton competing Egyptian cotton, the economic indications of yarn and textile industry and review the financial policies applied to the workable sectors in cotton. Researcher concluded that there is a failure including all production, manufacturing and marketing phases of cotton and also a failure of those who implement its agricultural policies. Therefore, there should be an intervention of the government to save Egyptian cotton from its current collapse to regain its luster.

The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans by Bruce E. Baker and Barbara Hahn

Reviewed by: The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleansby Bruce E. Baker and Barbara Hahn Rowena Olegario (bio) The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans. by Bruce E. Baker and Barbara Hahn. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. 232. $29.95. Derivatives are instruments whose value derives from an underlying asset—more specifically, in the movement of the asset's price. Because they involve only an exchange of money, there are always far more derivatives than the commodities that purportedly underpin them. Derivatives also attract speculators and gamblers. But as the authors of The Cotton Kingsremind us, the market for futures (a derivative) plays an essential role. It enables buyers and sellers to hedge—that is, protect themselves by buying additional contracts for a higher or lower price so as to end up at their original target price. The futures market also provides continuous information about the price of the commodity in the near and long term. In an ideal world, prices will always reflect accurate information that is available to everyone. But what if information can be manipulated, not just by rogue traders but by the "market" itself? This question is at the heart of The Cotton Kings, which investigates the attempts by the New Orleans cotton "bulls"—futures traders who bet on the rising price of cotton—to corner the world market in the first decade of the twentieth century. The upshot of their activities (along with some parallel shenanigans in the wheat market) was that Congress stepped in and made cornering the commodities markets illegal. It's an oft-repeated story: A market starts out being controlled by private institutions; the private institutions fail to stop the corrupt actions of its members, or the institutions themselves become corrupt; finally, the state steps in. Private ordering yields to public regulation. Bruce E. Baker and Barbara Hahn go beyond this neat narrative. They resurrect forgotten individuals and argue that the "villains" were not the diabolical New Orleans bulls; the true villains resided a thousand miles north, in New York. It is hardly surprising that sectional rivalry features so prominently in a book about cotton. Both the New Orleans Cotton Exchange (NOCE) and the New York Cotton Exchange (NYCE) were private, members-only institutions, but the brokers of New Orleans were geographically much closer to the cotton growers. The low price of cotton enabled the growth of consumption worldwide but kept farmers in a state [End Page 588]of near-penury—and therefore natural allies of the bulls. The New York exchange, meanwhile, was dominated by "bears," futures traders who bet on the falling price of cotton. Worse, the NYCE gave institutional support to bears through its system of fixed differences. The authors explain this arcane practice in the glossary, but suffice it to say that a "revision committee" had immense powers to keep cotton prices low. Baker and Hahn give center stage to New Orleans broker William Perry Brown. In their plot to corner the market, Brown and other bulls skillfully deployed their networks of family, friends, bankers, southern mill owners, and eventually cotton farmers. The New York bears also had ties, including to president of the United States William Taft, whose brother was the NYCE's chief lawyer. Much of the book recounts how the two sides competed by obtaining better information, or just manipulating it to their own benefit. As befits an agricultural story, timing and chance were vital catalysts. Farmers could not coordinate a movement to limit the cotton supply, but disastrous weather events and the spread of the boll weevil did it for them. Legislation to reform the exchanges stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress because of bitter party divisions, but the elections of 1912 broke the Republicans' hold, easing the passage of new legislation. The story also contains a hefty dose of irony, the biggest being the ultimate triumph of the New Orleans bulls. Punished for their attempts to corner the cotton market, the bulls nevertheless prevailed. New federal laws affirmed the legality of cotton futures trading as it was practiced in New...

Building the price forecasting model for cotton price in Kesinga Market Odisha, India

Agriculture development through cash crops is a sine qua non for economic growth of a state having an agrarian economy. Orissa is one of the most important states growing cotton under rainfed conditions in Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput(KBK) districts particularly in Kalahandi, Bolangir, Koraput Ganjam, Rayagada, and Nuapada. Cotton is the capital intensive crop in the state. Kalahandi (western Odisha) is the Black cotton soil zone and because of this, the quality of cotton is high comparing to other districts in the state. Kesinga is the leading cotton market in Kalahandi and it influences the cotton price in the state very well. So the need for forecasting the price of cotton in Kesinga emerges to give support to farmers and traders in planning and better marketing. The SARIMA model (1, 1, 1) (1, 1, 1)12 is selected as the best model for forecasting. The forecasted values were very much close to the actual values, and were very much helpful in improving the accuracy of forecasting. Seasonal index in the month of February shows the highest 107.82 and in the month of April it shows the lowest 89.61 in Kesinga market.

The Cotton Kings: Capitalism and Corruption in Turn-of-the-Century New York and New Orleans

The Cotton Kings relates a rip-roaring drama of competition in the marketplace and reveals the damage markets can cause when they do not work properly. It also explains how they can be fixed through careful regulation. At the turn of the twentieth century, cotton was still the major agricultural product of the American South and an important commodity for world industry. Key to marketing cotton were futures contracts, traded at exchanges in New York and New Orleans. Futures contracts had the potential to hedge risk and reduce price volatility, but only if the markets in which they were traded worked properly. Increasing corruption on the powerful New York Cotton Exchange pushed prices steadily downwards in the 1890s, impoverishing millions of cotton farmers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture tried to solve the problem with better crop predictions and market information, shared equally and simultaneously with all participants, but these efforts failed. To fight the cotton market's corruption, cotton brokers in New Orleans, led by William P. Brown and Frank Hayne, began quietly to assemble resources. They triumphed in the summer of 1903, when they cornered the world market in cotton and raised its price to reflect the reality of increasing demand and struggling supply. The brokers' success pushed up the price of cotton for the next ten years. However, the structural problems of self-regulation by market participants still threatened the cotton trade. More corruption at the New York Cotton Exchange appeared, until eventually political pressure inspired the Cotton Futures Act of 1914, the federal government's first successful regulation of a financial derivative. Available in OSO:

Review of the cotton market in Pakistan and its future prospects

Pakistan is the world’s 4th largest producer of cotton. Cultivation along the Indus River extends across nearly 3 million hectares and serves as the backbone of the economy. Despite this importance, information on the cotton sector in Pakistan, in particular with regard to cotton oils, is scanty and not available from a single source. This review seeks to remedy that gap. Though cultivated mainly for fiber, its kernel seed oil is also used as an edible vegetable oil and accounts for a large share of the local oil industry; per capita consumption of edible oils is nearly 14 kg, which is much higher than consumption in countries at similar levels of economic development. Pakistan fulfills 17.7% of its demand for edible oils through cottonseed oil. Total demand for this purpose in 2029–30 is estimated at 5.36 million tons of which local production will be 1.98 million tons. Genetically modified (Bt) cotton was introduced in Pakistan in 2010 to control three deleterious lepidopterous insects; it now accounts for more than 85% of the cotton cultivated. There is good scope for organic cotton production in Pakistan, especially in non-traditional cotton growing areas where there is less insect pressure. High temperature and water scarcity associated with climate change are a major concern, since current cultivation takes place in areas that already experience extremely high temperatures.

Marketing cost, margin and price spread of Bt cotton in Beed district of Maharashtra

Investigation was made to marketing cost, margin and price spread in Bt cotton. The study was conducted in the Beed district market for surveying of 20 market intermediaries. Two marketing channel were noticed in sale of Bt cotton viz. , Producer-Village merchant-Ginner-Consumer (channel-I), Producer-Ginner-Consumer (channel-II). It was observed that per quintal marketing cost was higher in channel -I for grade II i.e. Rs. 1050.70 followed by grade I Rs. 1048.56 and Rs. 1020.52 in grade III and Rs. 997.28 for grade I followed by grade II Rs. 991.23 and Rs. 956.20 in grade III in channel-II, respectively. Producers share in consumer's rupee was maximum in channel-II i.e. 76.55 per cent in grade III followed by grade II (75.60%) and for grade I (74.81%), respectively. Regarding price spread in Bt cotton marketing was highest in channel-II Rs. 6200, 6000 and 5800 for grade I, II, III, respectively and in channel-I Rs. 6100, 6000 and 5800 for grade I, II and III, respectively.

Market structure for cotton seed in different markets of middle Gujarat

The present paper attempts to analyze the market structure, problems and prospects in marketing of cotton seeds and suggest improvement in marketing of cotton seed marketing. Required data were collected from 30 dealers spread over three selected districts on cross sectional basis keeping in mind the relative importance of agencies/companies in the total volume of business especially in cotton seed marketing for the time period of 2009 to 2011.The major methods employed for the analysis were Lorenz co-efficient of inequality technique, Bain's classification for market structure and Garrett ranking technique. The Lorenz co-efficient values were near to one which confirmed the inequality in the distribution of the dealers by sizes in the cotton seed market. Out of total sale of cotton seed in a year 2009-10, 2010-11 and 2011-12, top four dealers' transactions was less than 25 per cent, the selected cotton seed market was atomistically competitive market. The most important constraint viewed by the dealers was non-availability of seeds by desired quantity followed by non-availability of seeds in time.