Agricultural Marketing in India

Food grains play an important role in any society. The majority of people those who die due to hunger, it is because a simple reason that they have to pay higher price to food grains. Therefore effective and efficient marketing essential task in this context. Agriculture marketing includes all the services which are used in moving the agriculture products from the farm to the consumer. There are many interconnected activities which are involved doing this, like planning, production, storage, agro and food processing, distribution advertising and sale. Some other definitions would even include ―the act of buying supplies, renting equipment and paying labor‖ arguing that marketing is everything a business does such activities can‘t take place without the exchange of information and are often heavily dependent on the availability of suitable finance. Marketing systems are dynamic they are competitive and involve continuous change and improvement business that have lower costs, are more efficient and can deliver quality products, are those that prosper that have high cost. Fail to changes in market demand and provide proper quality is often forced out of businesses. Agro-marketing efforts continuous, allowing those investors to connect with buyers and complete transactions that are ultimately beneficial to all parties concerned. India is an agricultural country and 1/3rd population depends on the agricultural sector directly or indirectly. Indian agricultural contribution to the GDP is about 25%. In India there are several central Government organizations, who are involved in agricultural marketing like Commission Of Agricultural Costs And Prices, FCI, Cotton Corporation of India, Jute Corporation Of India etc. There are also special marketing bodies for rubber, tea, coffee, tobacco, spices and vegetables. For a long period of time, Indian agriculture was mostly in the nature of subsistence. Farmer sold only a small part of his produce to pay off rent, debts and meet his other requirements. But the increasing development of agriculture producer has brought its significant.

These are the main objectives of our paper • To introduce and define agricultural marketing. • To explain problem in agriculture marketing in India. • To measure and improve the agriculture marketing in India.

We know that India is a developing country due to this there are so many problems in agricultural marketing. An organized system ensures better returns to the farmers. It also stables the market price. It protects the interest of consumer and producers. But in India, like other developing countries, the agricultural marketing is not well organized and farmers are facing many problems of agricultural marketing. These are:

the rural area of this country is not linked with the market by roads. So a lot of agricultural products are wasted due to poor transportation. • Poor quality of product:- Because of financial problem the farmers is not using the improved seeds and fertilizers so quality of production is very poor and its prices are low in the market. • Role of middleman:- The middleman of the market also takes a big share of production of farmer without doing anything. I decrease the income of the farmer and he borrows the money from the middleman and sells his product at lower rates. • Lack of grading:- In case of agricultural commodities the mixing of good and bad products is very common in developing countries like India and Pakistan. There is no proper method of grading for these corps. • Lack of credit facilities:- In India the credit facilities for farmers is not adequate to meet the farmer‘s requirements. For fulfill their needs poor farmers borrows money from private money lenders and give high interest rates. • Problem of produce collection:- The collection of produce from small farmers is very expensive and a difficult process. It is a great problem for the efficient marketing. • Lack of storage facility:- The storage facility are required by the producers as well as by the government. The farmers need storage facility to store their products and sell at the suitable time. • Weight and measures: - In various parts of weight and measures are not same. So a farmer suffers a loss at the time of buying selling of his products. • Market News:-In India most of farmers is uneducated and they knows nothing about the market demand and supply. So they are unable to achieve the real price of his product.

Agriculture has been the life blood of the Indian economy. It is not because of the fact that its contribution is lower than that of services in the GDP. It is because that many of the services have been measures which can improve the agricultural marketing. There should be many improvements to make Indian agricultural marketing system an organized marketing system. For making this system a well-organized system we should take some steps like this: • Improve transport facilities: - For a well-organized system Indian government should increase the road facilities and rural areas should be linked with the markets. It will enable the farmers to sell his product in the market directly in the hands of con summers. • Increase in the credit facility: - The government should provide loan to the farmer for storage facilities and for purchasing high quality or improved seeds. And the government should also construct the stores to keep the stocks of various goods. • Market reforms: - The government should improve the market system in the country. Market committee should be recognized. Market inspectors should check the prices of agricultural products. The strict laws should be introduced. • New market: - The government should build the new markets near the producing centre. It will enable the farmers to get proper reward. • Cold storage:- This is an important part of organized markets. These are very useful for the perishable goods like fruits and vegetable. The government should expand the scope of cold storage. • Grading of products: - There are various agencies which are busy in grading agricultural product. There is a need to expand these organizations for effective marketing system. • Market information: - Market demand and conditions can be provided to the farmers through radio, television and newspapers. The government should also pay special attentions to this side. • Marketing research: - The government should allocate a sufficient amount as marketing research to make the agricultural marketing more effective. Agriculture is an important sector in contributing more revenue to the Indian economy. With a greater importance agriculturist should good marketing facilities as economy adopt new policies. There is no doubt in any marketing there is a motive towards profit involved and at the same time the marketing to be based on certain values, principles, philosophies such as offering just and fair prices to the farmers as toil hard to till. Bringing necessary reforms coupled with proper price discovery mechanism through regulated reforms will help streamline and strengthen agricultural marketing in order to avoid isolation of small scale farmers from the benefit of agricultural produce they need to be integrated and informed with the markets knowledge like fluctuations demand and supply concepts which are the core of economy. Marketing of agriculture can be made effective and integrative efforts from various quarters by addressing to farmers, middleman, researcher and administrators. It is high time we brought our significant strategies in agricultural marketing with innovative and creative approaches to bring fruits of the labor to the farmers.

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Extension Lecturer, K.M. Govt. College, Narwana, Jind