ABSTRACT As an aftermath of globalization and trade liberalization the vegetable cultivation and marketing contribute to Indian economy in a bigger way as vegetable cultivation is an inseparable part of Indian cultivation. In recent era, among different types of vegetables Tomato is most favourable to all Indians as a table and processed vegetable. With an aim to increase the productivity of vegetable it is necessary to develop improved and sustainable varieties after considering the demand of different stakeholders of the concerned vegetable. The stakeholders associated with the production aegis of Tomato are growers, traders, consumers and above all the scientists who are the variety evolvers. With a view to know whether there exists differences among the preferences of different stakeholders or there are similarities among their preferences regarding Tomato, this study was conducted at Saguna gram panchayat of Nadia district and Kanchrapara municipality of North 24 Parganas District of West Bengal. The area was selected with the help of area sampling technique and the respondents were selected with the help of total enumeration technique for getting the consumers, traders and growers’ responses in the selected area. Data were collected with the help of structured interview schedule. To analyse the collected data for drawing conclusion the analytical tools like co-relation co-efficient and factor analysis were used. The analysis was done in two divisions. The first was the comparison among the consumers and traders and second was the comparison among the farmers and scientists. In the comparison among the consumers and traders by computing co-relation co-efficient, the value was found significant. It indicates that the preference pattern varies from consumers to traders. The factor analysis revealed that in case of tomato cultivation, the numbers of identified factors were different for different types of stakeholders. It was also found that factors having same number had different loadings for different stakeholders. Breeder should go to the other stakeholders to ensure their participation in breeding process because practically they are the key actors and directors for adding sustainability to the tomato production process.

Keyword: Perceived attributes, Stakeholders, Growers, Traders, Consumers, Breeders, Tomato production,