Define agricultural marketing. Outline the agricultural marketing system that existed before independence. Give any two measures of state intervention in this direction.

Question

Accepted Answer

Agricultural marketing is a process that involves the assembling, storage, processing, packaging, transportation, grading and distribution of various agricultural products across the country.

Before independence, the agricultural marketing system was far from satisfactory because:

1. Farmers suffered from faulty weighing and manipulation of accounts while selling their output to traders.

2. Due to lack of information about prevailing prices, farmers were often forced to sell at low prices.

3. They lacked proper storage facilities and could not hold back their produce for sale at a better price later, leading to wastage of farm products.

The state intervened in the marketing aspect by adopting the following measures:

1. **Regulation of markets** to create orderly and transparent marketing conditions, protecting farmers from the malpractices of sellers and brokers.

2. **Provision of infrastructural facilities** such as roads, railways, warehouses, godowns, cold storages and processing units, which prevent distress sales.

3. **Cooperative marketing**, under which marketing societies are formed by farmers to sell the output collectively and take advantage of collective bargaining to realise fair prices.

4. **Policy instruments** such as the assurance of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for agricultural products, maintenance of buffer stocks of wheat and rice by the FCI, and distribution of essential foodgrains through the Public Distribution System (PDS).