Price Forecasting of Mango in Varanasi Market of Uttar Pradesh

Abstract

The study had been made to forecast the price of mango using ARIMA model in one of the major markets of Uttar Pradesh as the state ranks first position in production of mango in India. Varanasi market was selected purposively on the basis of second highest arrival market of mango in the state. Using ARIMA methodology on the monthly prices of mango collected from the Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), Varanasi for the year 1993 to 2015. As the mango fruit having property of alternate bearing, only six month data from March to August was available in the market and accordingly had been used for forecasting analysis using E-views 7 software. The results revealed that the price in selected market was found to be highest during the start of the season using ARIMA (1,0,6) model, confirming the validity of model through Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE). The MAPE was found to be less than 10 per cent for one step ahead forecast of year 2015. Forecasted price for the month of March was almost double than the price of other months. It indicates the necessity of adopting pre and post harvest management technologies for getting the benefit over increase in prices.