Author(s): S. S. DANA, A. GHOSH, N. S. PAL AND U. K. BANDYOPADHYAY

Abstract: Mudrncrab is a cheap source of protein and also palatable food which are liked byrnthe consumers of internal and foreign markets. The mud crab fishery in Indiarnhas in recent years emerged as an export-oriented trade with prime potential.rnDue to lack of marketing system, information and expertise, development of crabrnmarketing system has not been achieved a sustained route. Despite providingrnimportant means of livelihood for fishermen of Sunderbans region, there is nornorganized marketing system of crab and studies related to these are alsornlacking. For this, the present study was conducted with the objectives torndetermine the present status of crab marketing system and constraints in fiverncrab markets namely, Canning market, Namkhana market and Ukilerhat market fromrnSouth 24-Parganas and Dhamakhali market and Nazat market from North 24-Parganasrnand 50 crab fishers / producers, 50 middlemen and 20 exporters were selected byrnsimple random sampling without replacement technique. Thus, a total of 120rnrespondents were considered for this study. It was found that majority of crabrnfishers (54%) were belonged to middle-age group, Below Poverty Line (BPL)rncategory (76 %) and SC category (68 %). Crab markets were mainly dominated byrnmiddlemen and aratdars. 95 per cent of male crab fishers dominated the crabrnmarket whereas, only 5 per cent of females were involved in crab farming andrnmanagement practices. Income from crab fishers fluctuated throughout the yearrnbut the peak season for highest earning was reported as winter. In existingrncrab marketing system, 50 per cent of crab fishers were facing the problem ofrninvolvement of large numbers of middlemen followed by transportation problemsrn(38%), reduced amount of catch (8%) and diseases (2%). Thorough infrastructurerndevelopment and improved information dissemination, there is an immense scope of developing a lucrative crab marketing venture.

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