Agricultural Marketing

Agricultural marketing covers all the activities involved in moving farm produce from the farmer/producer to the final consumer -- assembling, grading, storage, transport, and sale. Efficient marketing ensures the farmer receives a fair price and the consumer gets produce at a reasonable cost; in India, however, traditional agricultural marketing has long suffered from serious problems.

Problems of traditional agricultural marketing in India

1. Multiplicity of middlemen: Produce often passes through several intermediaries before reaching the consumer, each taking a margin, so the farmer's share of the final price is reduced.
2. Inadequate storage and warehousing: Lack of scientific storage forces many farmers into distress sale immediately after harvest, when prices are typically at their lowest.
3. Malpractices in weighment and grading: Farmers, especially in unregulated markets, have historically faced unfair weighing practices and a lack of standard grading.
4. Poor transport and market infrastructure: Weak rural roads and limited market yards raise transport costs and delay produce reaching markets, causing spoilage of perishables.
5. Lack of market information: Farmers often lack timely information on prevailing prices in different markets, weakening their bargaining position.

Reforms in agricultural marketing

• Regulated markets (APMC mandis): Agricultural Produce Market Committees were set up under state Agricultural Produce Market Committee Acts to provide regulated market yards with standard weighment, grading, and transparent auctions, protecting farmers from some of the malpractices above -- though over time many APMC mandis themselves developed monopoly-like control and cartelisation among licensed traders, which became a fresh reform target.
• e-NAM (National Agriculture Market): Launched in 2016, e-NAM is an online trading platform that links APMC mandis across states electronically, allowing wider price discovery and letting buyers bid for produce beyond the local mandi.
• Warehousing and storage reform: Expansion of scientific storage by the Food Corporation of India and state warehousing corporations, along with the Negotiable Warehouse Receipt system, which lets farmers deposit produce in accredited warehouses and borrow against the receipt instead of being forced into an immediate distress sale. …