The study was conducted to forecast the price of black pepper in one of the major markets of Karnataka state as the state ranks first position in production of pepper in India. The Gonikoppal market in Kodagu district was selected purposively on the basis of highest area and production in the state. The monthly prices of black pepper in Gonikoppal market were collected from the Karnataka State Agricultural Marketing Board, Bangalore, Karnataka state for the year 2008-09 to 2017-18. The time-series models such as ARIMA and ARCH models were applied to price data using software’s such as SPSS, Gretl and EViews. The Augmented Dickey-Fuller test and Heteroscedasticity Lagrange’s Multiplier test were used to test the stationarity and volatility of the time-series respectively. The best forecasted model was determined based on the lowest values of Akaike’s Information Criterion (AIC) and Schwartz Bayesian Information Criterion (SBIC). However, the predictability power, performance and quality of the model was measured based on the lowest error value of the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and Mean Absolute Prediction Error (MAPE). Among the tested models the prediction accuracy of the ARIMA model was higher than ARCH family models. On the basis of the results, the ARIMA (0,1,1) provide a good fit for forecasting the price of black pepper. | Forecasting of black pepper price in Karnataka state: An application of Arima and arch models
