AGRICULTURAL MARKETING IN INDIA – ISSUES AND CHALLENGES

An attempt is made in this paper is to analyse the agricultural marketing in India issues and challenges. Agriculture is different from industry and plays a significant role in the economic development of a nation. India’s prosperity depends upon the agricultural prosperity. There are many kinds of agricultural products produced in India and the marketing of all these farm products generally tends to be a complex process. Given the declining share of traditional agricultural commodities in production, consumption and trade, horticulture and other non-traditional high-value agriculture represent an important area of potential income growth in rural areas. The high-value agriculture-led-growth strategy also provides significant scope for achieving greater commercialization of smallholder agriculture. Despite the potential, the contribution of high-value agricultural exports is still small but increasing. Agriculture provides goods for consumption and exports and manufacturing sectors. The suitable marketing system should be designed so as to give proper reward or return to the efforts of the tiller of the soil. Market information is a means of increasing the efficiency of marketing system and promoting improved price formation. It is crucial to the farmers to make informed decisions about what to grow, when to harvest, to which market produce should be sent and whether or not to store it. Awareness of farmers on different components of market information and its utility was very poor (11 to 37 %) as compared to that of traders (75%). Out of the expectations of farmers on grades, quality, prices in potential markets, price projections; only real time arrivals and prices were documented and disseminated with traditional approach.