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Maximization of the agricultural profit not only bank on the production but also on the proper marketing behaviour of that crop. Agricultural commodity which are more perishable are difficult to market and store. Marketing behaviour of perishable crops like banana will stipulate us the exact scenario of the banana growers. Bananas may be the world's oldest cultivated crop. There is evidence that bananas were cultivated in the highlands of New Guinea at least 7,000 years ago and that Musa varieties were being bred and grown in the Mekong Delta area of Southeast Asia as long as 10,000 years ago. Bananas are the number one fruit traded in the world. The worldwide trade of bananas is worth $4 billion a year. About 80 million tones of banana produced around the world. Less than 20 percent of production is exported, within which 15 percent are exported to the United States, Europe and Japan.

Banana (Musa sp.) is the second most important fruit crop in India succeeding to Mango. Banana is a fat free crop, easy to digest and rich in the source of carbohydrate (Singh, 2007). Its year round availability, affordability, varietal range, taste, nutritive and medicinal value makes it the favorite fruit among all classes of people. It has also good export potential. The banana has various marketing opportunities with respect to all the aspects of market information, storage, export, import etc., farmers were not adopting such facilitative marketing behavior which accelerate the produce value. Such, status of the banana cultivators are interpreted in the study. Bestowing to the department of industries and commerce the overall area, production, productivity of banana in Theni district for the year 2018-2019 was 4102 ha, 22720 tonnes, 5539 kg/ha respectively.
The current study focusses to study the marketing behaviour of the banana growers in Theni district.
Research Methodology
Tamilnadu is the largest producer of banana in india. Theni is one of the leading cultivator of banana in Tamilnadu, along with Trichy, Coimbatore, Erode. Theni was purposively selected for the study, due to the fact that Theni has more marketing viability than an other districts in Tamilnadu. Theni district consists of 5 taluks viz., Theni, Bodinayakanur, Periyakulam, Andipatti, Uthamapalayam. Among the taluks in Theni district Uthamapalayam taluk was selected purposively since this taluk has got maximum area under Banana cultivation. Uthamapalayam taluk has three blocks - Uthamapalayam, Chinnamanur and Cumbum. Out of these, Chinnamanur block was selected purposively, due to the availability of more number of banana cultivators. Out of which, 120 respondents were randomly selected and investigated by the direct personal interview method through the pre-scheduled interview schedule. Ex-post facto relationship is used for the complete evaluation.
Marketing behaviour
Ability of an individual to trace out the market trends to sale their produce for higher returns are considered as the marketing behaviour.
Marketing behaviour of the current study falls under different categories, viz., Mode of sale, market distance, Transport mode, borrowing nature, scale time, pattern of payment, knowing price trend sources and involvement of middleman. The scale which was followed by the Suruliappa (1997) was used for the study with slight modifications. Marketing behaviour was studied on a scale of “yes” and “no”. For “yes” each channel has an score value of “2”, while for “no” each channel has an score value of “1”.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Marketing behaviour of the respondents

Distinct marketing behaviour of the respondents were analyzed under ten different sections namely Mode of transport, Mode of sale, Nature of borrowing, Distance of the market (KM), Time of sale, Grading behaviour, Unit of sale, Purpose of storage, Terms and conditions of scale and Payment pattern. The outcome obtained are furnished in the following table 1.

Table1: Distribution of respondents according to their Marketing behaviour
(n=120)

 

Mode of transport
With reference to the mode of transport, 68.30 percent of the cultivators were using the tempo van for their produce marketing. It was ascertained in the course of survey that cultivators themselves form groups and make collective disposition for their produce. There were 30.80 percent of the cultivators were using lorry as the mode of transport for their produce and while only 3.30 percent of them were sale their produce at their farm gate.
Mode of sale
Preponderance to the respondents 88.30 % sold their produce to the wholesale market. Exiguous amount of respondents sold their produce through institutional market (8.30%) pursued by retailer and brokers with 3.30% and 1.70 % correspondingly.
On a general note most of the crop cultivators prefer immediate cash for their produce, so they sold their produce to the retailer markets or some brokerages. Due to the perishable nature of banana, their cultivators were interested and insisted to sold their produce to the wholesale market rather than the retailer or the brokerage markets.

 Nature of borrowing
It is recognized from the data that the respondents are borrowing more or less proportionately from all the sources of money borrowing. Within which institutional borrowing is marginally more than the other source of borrowing with 36.70 percentage pursued by non institutional borrowings (32.50%) and own capital investment (30.80%)
The cultivators of banana are inconsiderably different from the other plant producers, in a way that generally farmers relies mostly on the non institutional credit due to their lack of accessibility and lack of awareness. Banana farmers were dependent more on the institutional credit which indicates that most of the farmers were aware of their produce and their suitable and accessible market.   
Distance of the market
It is catalogued from the exceeding table that relatively extreme number of respondents (95%) sold their produce to the market located above 25 kilometre from their fields. Merely, 5 % of the respondents sold their produce to the market within 2.5 km to 10 kilometre.
It is certainly noted that no respondents sold their produce to the market which lies between the distance of 10-15 km, 15-20 km and 15-20 kms, which illustrate the market condition of the perishable commodities like banana. Most of the banana produced in the Theni district are exported to the other districts and states deliberately.
Time of sale
Greater number of respondents (95%) sold their produce promptly after the harvest. A few number of respondents (5%) sold their produce after initial storage period. As already mentioned due to the perishable nature of the banana it is uncertain to sell after a long storage period and the speculation is least possible in the banana.
The other reason for these kinda sale is most of the small and medium farmers would be in need of money for meeting their farm and home expenses and also to settling their loans immediately harvest.
Grading behaviour
The data reveals that colossal of the respondents (93.30%) grade their produce afore marketing. In consequential amount of respondents (6.70%) were not graded afore the marketing.
It is a known fact that the graded produces could able to sold their produce in any market than the non graded produces.
Unit of sale
It is diagnosed from the above table that 95.90 percent of the banana growing respondents had the practice of selling their produce based on the weight, whereas only 3.30 percent of the banana growers relies on selling based on the counting.
It is identified from many previous studies that mostly all the respondents sold their produce to the distant market based on the weight.
Terms and condition of sale
It could be contemplated that 46.70 % of the respondents sold their produce in contract, at the same time 45% of the farmers sold their produce for ready cash. Credit sale was found with only 7.50% of the respondents.
Due to the fact that most of the banana produce are sold to other districts and states, majority of the producers sold in contract basis. This would reduce the risk of price fluctuation which is identified as the important constraint in this study.

CONCLUSION

As a minutiae approach, the present study discuss about the individuate marketing behaviour of the respondents. It is identified in the research that most of the bananas were cultivated in large production. Nearly all the farmers sold their produce immediately after the sale, subjected to the cash on hand immediately after the sale, with reference to the traditional method or the local leaders. Though mass cold storage were developed for many perishable crops, the farmers in theni district were used to the habit of bulk immediate disposal and ready cash. Although these activities provide them a economic comfort, it is important for the extension workers to disseminate the real use and benefit of storage in the aspects of both market and finance. These could reduce the loss of various banana produce and equitate the demand at different places.

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