Bulk of the groundnut produce is sold by
the farmers as pods and small percentage as kernels. Shelling reduces
volume and transport charges but it is disadvantageous to market the
kernels as they easily undergo deterioration and spoilage.
About 70 to 80 per cent of the marketable surplus
of groundnut pods is taken by the farmers personally to the markets.
The disposal of the produce, either at the market or in the village
is, however, often closely connected with indebtedness. When the produce
is sold to the creditors in the village or in the local market, the
prices paid to the farmer are much lower than the regulated market rates.
The seller has to pay tolls, taxes, commission,
labourers wages, weighment charges and deduction for charity. Deductions
are also made for quality, impurities, moisture, etc., even though all
these have been taken into account at the time of price settlement.
In the regulated markets, certain amenities
are provided to sellers and exorbitant market charges and deductions
in settled price are not made. The number of regulated markets and volume
of produce handled by them are still inadequate. It is necessary that
regulated markets are started in all groundnut producing centres.
The methods of sale generally adopted are: (a)
the cover system, (b) the open system, and (c) the auction system. There
is great diversity in the use of weights and measures in the groundnut
trade. The pods are sometimes sold by measure.
The main source of the farmers finance is the village
merchant who advances small amounts for agricultural operations and
other expenses. Wholesale merchants are owners of shelling (decorticating)
establishments and they advance money to the village merchants and in
a few cases to the farmers in the nearby villages. The banks confine
their activities to big towns and advances are made to merchants against
produce in the godowns pledged to the Banks. Credit has to be made available
in the village by the Banks directly to the farmers to get them out
of the clutches of the greedy local merchants so that they could secure
good price for their produce.
There is export trade for edible kernels. These
kernels should be bold, clean and without any blemishes. In the export
trade, these kernels are styled hand picked selection (HPS) and fetch
enormous prize. There is considerable scope for expansion of this trade.
Farmers should take advantage of this and grow bold seeded varieties
under irrigation. These kernels are used in bakery and confectionery
industry and also directly for edible purposes.
The residue left after oil extraction from
groundnut kernels is known as cake. There are two commercial grades
of cake in India one is expeller quality and other is chekku or Ghani
quality obtained from power driven oil mills and indigenous wooden ghani
or chekku respectively.
The cake analysis for 8 per cent N, 1.4 per cent
P2O5 and 1.2 per cent K20 makes a good
organic manures.
Groundnut cake is also a nutritive valuable cattle
feed for work animal and milch cattle. It has very high food value e.g.,
fat 9.2 per cent, protein 46.1 per cent, soluble carbohydrate 24.2 per
cent, fibre 8.4 per cent and ash 5.8 per cent.
Groundnut cake is used for human consumption
provided the cake is made from clean kernels under thorough hygienic
conditions.
The cake flour makes a well-balanced and palatable
food for infants and adults. The flour blends easily with wheat and
other flours and is consequently used by bakers, confectioners, candy
makers and ice-cream manufacturers.
In U.S.A. and England protease, nuttose, bromose,
metose, nut-metose, etc., are made out of cakes.
Groundnut is a member of legumoceae family
and as its character it has tap root system. A good crop of one hectare
adds 1-2 tonnes organic matter/ha to the soil.
The root nodules fix the atmospheric nitrogen into
the soil through which not only groundnut crop is benefited but with
the residual fertility the succeeding (following) crop is also greatly
benefited.
Its haulms make a very palatable fodder to cattle
when fed in green state, however, it may be fed in the form of hay after
drying or after converting it into silage.
From nutrition point of view the haulm is a richer
feed than that of cereals or millets and is at par with that of berseem,
cowpea or lucerne. On an average one hectare crop gives about 30-50
quintals of haulms.
The hay prepared from haulms contains about 8-11
per cent protein in it.
Groundnut kernels have about 25.3 per cent protein.
The protein is composed of high amino acid contents such as Arginine
(15.6% of protein).
Histidine (4.1% of protein), Lycine (6.6% of protein)
and Cystine (1.5% of protein).
The protein is digestible to human being upto
the extent of 86 per cent while by rat feeding experiments its digestibility
reaches to 97.37 per cent with a biological value of 57.9 per cent.
The oil content of kernels ranges from 40 to 50
per cent. Oil is a rich source of vitamin A, B and E along with a high
mineral content such as phosphorus (0.25 0.66%) and iron (0.0018
0.10%). The other inorganic substances found in them are K (0.68 0.89%),
Ca (0.2 0.8%), Mg (0.09 0.34%), S (0.19 0.24%), Zn (0.0017 0.98%),
Mn (0.008 0.05%), Cu (0.0007 0.03%), BO (0.0026 0.05%) and Mo
(0.0008 0.003%).
The groundnut kernels are used in the roasted
form for eating purposes. Peanut milk, butter, curds and chatani is
prepared from raw peanut kernels.
Industrial uses
Groundnut oil is extensively used for cooking
purposes in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and other states, either raw or
refined. The oil is also used for preparing vegetable oil (Vanaspati).
Low quality oil is used for making soaps. The
beauty-aids, shaving cream, cold cream and Pomades are also prepared
from groundnut oil. Leather dressing and furniture creams, glycerine
and tallow are manufactured from groundnut.
It is used for medical aids such as for preparing
liniments, plasters and ointments. For cattle it is used in making nutritive,
laxative and emollient.
The Ardein prepared from groundnut is used for
milch cattle and it is observed that with the Ardein there is an increase
of 35 per cent in milk especially in case of cows.
The groundnut cake powder is used as laundry starch
and in manufacture of paper, gummed tapes and plastics. Activated carbon
is prepared from groundnut shells. It is a good foreign exchange earner.
Marketing
