ANNOUNCEMENTS
Since the 1980s, timber agroforestry in India has gradually engendered ardent patronage, both in the economic and political sphere. This support has elicited several initiatives to incentivise farmers to adopt agroforestry, not only as a way to increase their incomes, but also to ease the pressure on forest timber resources. Little consideration, however, has been afforded to the development of wood-based markets, where conflicting government policies, the influence of traders and intermediaries, and oligopolistic behaviour of the end-users have precipitated decreased returns to producers. to ensure increased returns to producers, a cost-effective agroforestry market chain is essential. The objective of this study is to identify the timber agroforestry value chains, assess the institutional and economic efficiency of the chains, and identify policy changes to improve the functioning of value chains and enable farmers to enhance their income. Market Efficiency Analysis using the Value Chain Framework was adopted to assess the market chains. Three main chains were identified: one involving timber merchants and commission agents; second involving just the commission agents; and the third involving a government intermediary. The first chain was the most dominant over the others, with more than 77% of the producers using the chain to sell the produce. Price uncertainty, low level of communication, negotiation of prices, and no technical assistance provisions precipitated a low level of trust in the predominant market chain. Chain II is also unfavourable in respect of trust between actors. The market efficiency analysis shows that in all chains, market transformation of the product is needed to market the product, with marketing intermediaries incurring high costs and earning exorbitant margins. It is observed that marketing margins play are significant role in ascertaining the efficiency of a market system. Thus, fewer the intermediaries, lesser the margins, higher the efficiency. Potential policy implications were also suggested to improve the chains.
