Author(s): A. K. Maiti and S. Kundu

Abstract: Water chestnut (Trapa natans) is one of the most important and popular minor aquatic fruit crops grown in India. It is mainly grown in the tropical and sub-tropical regions as submersed plant community. It is also grown in the soft nutrient freshwater wetlands, lakes, ponds and streams. In India, it is most commonly used as edible nuts. The kernel of water chestnut contains a large amount of protein (up to 20%), starch (52%), tannins (9.4%), fat (up to 1%), sugar (3%), minerals, etc. It is most popular and aquatic fruit crop and can easily be grown in neglected and marshy areas, where the other fruit plants cannot be grown successfully. But because of faulty marketing system, the production and technological improvement has not gain momentum. Its marketing system is not organized. Nadia and 24-Parganas (North) are two districts where water chestnut is cultivated in a large scale and the study is restricted to 24-Parganas (North) district of West Bengal and data relates to the agricultural year 2011-12. The study is mainly focused on to identify the marketing channels involved in the marketing of water chestnut and to analyse the price spread of water chestnut and marketing efficiency. Farmer – Secondary Wholesaler – Retailer – Consumer is found to be more dominant as 38% of the produce of the sample area are enrooted through this channel. In Barrackpur-1block, channel-I is found to be most efficient channel (marketing efficiency-1.92) and in Rajarhat-1 block, channel-III is most efficient channel (marketing efficiency-2.01). Efficiency of marketing channels varies from block to block. Profits reaped by the traders determine the efficiency of the marketing channel.

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