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This study aims to examine the factors that impact the choice of paddy marketing channels in India at the farm level and household contingencies.

Employing multinomial logistic regression, the analysis utilizes the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) 77th round Situation Assessment Survey (SAS) data from the 2018 to 2019 period, specifically for the paddy Kharif season, to determine the factors determining the choice of marketing channels. The significant independent variables include minimum support price (MSP) awareness, access to and adoption of technical advice, input agency, social group, farm size of farmers, region, age and education of the household head.

Awareness of MSP and adoption of technical advice from experts can enhance the probability of selecting government channels for paddy. The reliance on government input agencies has a favourable impact on the choice of government channels. Government channels are more likely preferred by higher social groups and those with higher land-holdings. There has been a state-wise variation in access to regulated marketing channels for paddy.

Transaction cost associated with marketing channel choice is an important factor, not incorporated in this study due to the unavailability in the NSS data.

The research uses the latest unit-level data of the NSSO 77th round, published by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), the Government of India.

The provision of fair and remunerative prices to farmers through government intervention is one of the key debates to address the farmers' distress in India. This article identifies how different marketing channels are responsible for higher price realization over the officially announced minimum support price (MSP).

The study uses the NSSO-SAS, 2012–13 and NSSO-SAS, 2018–19 for Aggregate level data and Unit Level Data on the Situation Assessment Survey of Farmers' households. It uses logit regression to determine the factors responsible for better price realization.

Our major findings indicate that two factors importantly determine better price realization than MSP. Firstly, government agencies provide better prices for crops covered by MSP, such as paddy, wheat and cotton. However, the probability of receiving higher prices increases for some crops if the farmers belong to the upper land size classes and upper social category. Secondly, jowar, bajra, maize and ragi, other important crops that don't benefit from government agencies, may require higher levels of procurement at the state level.

The present study only analyzes selected major crops. Distance is an important factor in choosing a marketing channel that is not incorporated due to unavailability in NSS Data.

The study is based on the latest original empirical evidence and sheds light on the variation in price realization in different agricultural marketing channels in India.