Agricultural Market System and Sustainable Development

It refers to the process that includes the gathering, stockpiling, handling, transportation, bundling, reviewing, and circulation of various agrarian wares the nation over.  Here is a more detailed guide on Agricultural Market System and Sustainable Development.

Pre-Independence situation:

• Faulty weighing of produce and account manipulation by traders while purchasing from the farmers
• Forced sales at low prices due to farmers’ lack of information about prevailing market prices
• Lack of storage facilities, which could have enabled delayed sales at better prices

This made a case for government intervention post-independence. 

Corrective measures are taken:

• Regulation of markets to enable rule-based and transparent exchange
• Developing enabling infrastructure like roads, warehouses, railways, cold storage, etc
• Cooperative marketing for realizing better value for farmers’ produce
• Introducing policy instruments like: 

1. Assurance of Minimum Support Prices (MSP) for agricultural products.
2.  Maintenance of buffer stocks of wheat and rice by Food Corporation of India.
3. Cereals and sugar are distributed through PDS.                                                                                                                                     Currently, private trade, which includes moneylenders, regional political elites,  merchants, and large-scale farmers, predominates in agricultural markets. However, the government always takes measures to stop such unfair practices in trading.

Emerging Alternative Marketing Channels:

1. Farmers directly selling their products to consumers results in increased incomes for the farmers. E.g., Our Mandi (Rajasthan, Punjab, etc.) Hadapsar Mandi (Pune); Rythu Bazars (vegetable and fruit markets in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana). 
2. Public and worldwide inexpensive food chains are currently going into contracts with ranchers to produce wanted quality.  

Diversification into Productive Activities:

Diversification has two aspects: the change in the cropping pattern and the Shift of the workforce from agriculture to other allied activities (livestock, poultry, fisheries, etc.), and the non-agriculture sector. 

The need for diversification:

1. There is a greater risk for those who depend on farming for livelihood.
2. There must be provision for rural people by providing them the options of productive, sustainable livelihood. 
3. In areas with limited irrigation facilities, difficulty in finding alternate meaningful employment during the Rabi season (Non-Monsoon season).
4. In conclusion, other work sectors must be expanded. They should cooperate with rural people to make them gain reasonable payments, and even more employment options should be created for them. 

Sustainable Development and Organic Farming:

• Chemical fertilizers and toxic pesticides pollute water sources, harming soils, livestock, and natural ecosystems
• As an alternative, organic agriculture is a whole system of farming that restores, maintains, and enhances the ecological balance

Benefits of Organic Farming:

• Substitute costlier agricultural inputs, with cheaper locally produced organic inputs
• Income through exports on the back of rising demand for organic crops
• Better nutritional value as compared to chemical farming
• The production or output is pesticide-free livestock and environmentally friendly in a sustainable way

Limitations with organic farming (Indian Context):

• Awareness and willingness to adopt new technology on account of farmers are needed
• One of the significant limitations is the marketing of such products and the inadequate infrastructure
• Organic farming is in its initial days, and its yields are less than modern agriculture
• Small scale farmers may have issues in adopting it to large scale
• There are chances that organic farming producers have a shorter life than sprayed produces

Off-season crops can be produced in limited numbers as the livestock options of crops are available in organic farming