Agriculture notes prepared by IAS Topper for all agriculture based competitive exams-Agricutural Economics-Agricultural Marketing

AGRICULTURAL MARKETING

Characteristics of Agricultural Produce

·        Perishability of produce

·        Seasonality of production

·        Bulkiness

·        Wide quality variation

·        Irregular supply and demand

·        Most commodities require processing

·        Small size of holding and scattered production

Problems of Indian Agricultural Marketing

 It can be grouped as

a). Infrastructure bottlenecks

·        Poor transport and storage facilities result in heavy post harvest loss of agricultural commodities. Roads and rail links are not there in every place of agricultural production. Modern cooling systems are also not extended to needy places.

b). Credit and market information

·        Lack of organized credit facility provides ample opportunity for the moneylenders to exploit the illiterate farmers. Non availability of credit discourage the farmers to go for time production of commodities there by falling pray to price fluctuations and middle man exploitations.

·        Lack of market information results in selling of commodities to local traders

c). Fraud and mal practices in markets

·        Unregulated weights and measurements

·        Excessive market charges

·        Adulterations and lack of grading and standardization

d). Other problems

·        Lack of farm organizations or farmers association to put forth their demands and facilities to government

·        Unfavourable market and other trade related environment to the farmers.

 Steps taken by the government to improve marketing of agricultural products

• Increase in Regulated Markets all over the country
• Use of standard weights and measurements
• Grading and standardization
• Improvement of means of transport and storage facilities (ware housing and cold storage chains)
• Arrangement of rural credit facilities
• Dissemination of market information through All India Radio and Doordarshan
• Establishment of NAFED, commodity boards (coffee and tea board, tobacco board, cocao board etc,), Small Farmers Agri-business Consortium etc.
• Market inspections, training and research on agricultural marketing
• Consumer protection measures and stringent regulations