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Abstract
This paper examines consumer attitudes to quality characteristics of chickpea in India. A linear hedonic price functional form was estimated using price and quality data of 52 kabuli chickpea and 128 desi-type chickpea samples obtained from major chickpea markets in India. Empirical results indicate that physical quality characteristics and purity standards are important factors influencing consumption decisions in the Indian chickpea market. The chemical quality characteristics have been found to be unimportant in influencing consumption decisions due to their cryptic nature. The implicit values of the physical quality characteristics and purity standards are reported. The results demonstrate that there is an incentive for breeders, producers and exporters to improve the quality characteristics of chickpea export because consumers in India discriminate between chickpea varieties based on their physical characteristics and purity standards.