Institutional and grassroots disconnect in jute marketing: A multidimensional analysis of information dissemination gap in west Bengal using feature engineering

Abstract:

Jute, as a strategic fibre crop in the agrarian landscape of West Bengal, continues to face substantial impediments in marketing efficiency, primarily due to a persistent disjunction between the availability of market-related information and its actual assimilation at the grassroots level. The present study was conducted to systematically explore and quantify this information asymmetry by adopting a comparative framework between institutional supply and farmer-level accessibility of jute marketing information. A multi-stage stratified purposive sampling design was employed, encompassing 275 jute-growing farmers across 12 blocks in four jute-producing districts-Murshidabad, Nadia, Purba Burdwan, and Cooch Behar-and 30 officials representing agricultural marketing departments, cooperatives, and extension systems. A multidimensional interview schedule operationalizing 30 distinct categories of marketing information was administered, with established validity and reliability. All informational variables were normalized using z-score transformation, and normality tests (Shapiro-Wilk and Anderson-Darling) were conducted to guide appropriate inferential pathways. Advanced statistical methods-including Cohen’s d, Cliff’s Delta, bootstrap confidence intervals, empirical cumulative distribution divergence, overlap coefficient, Kullback-Leibler divergence, Wasserstein distance and lasso regression-were employed. Findings revealed a substantial perceptual and functional gap between the information availability and accessibility along with significant predictors of the both domains. The study recommends a targeted feature specific reorientation of extension strategies through digital inclusion, localized market intelligence, and decentralized policy dissemination, while integrating machine learning-based decision support tools to address context-specific informational deficits in jute marketing systems.