One major flaw in the growth of agriculture is lack of marketing. Unfortunately, this is a pan-India phenomenon says niharika patra
“No sirjee, I don’t face problem because I can’t grow crops, but the trouble is that I am not able to sell them in the way I want and at the price I want.” These are words of Ankur, who owns a sizable farm in Punjab, the state which was the main beneficiary of the Green Revolution. Similar situation is also faced by Jatan, a jute grower and marketer from West Bengal. The places may be far and wide, but poor conditions for agri-marketing is very near to what can be called homogeneous. Whether it is production of cash crops or food grains, average Indian farmers invariably face trouble in marketing their products. Most of the times they even fail to sell crops at the market price. But the real vices are more deeply rooted.
From the very beginning of a crop’s journey towards the market, a farmer starts struggling because of the loopholes in the existing system. Storage as such costs the most. Even if the farmer is ready to pay, there is lack of sufficient storage facilities. And if the farmer needs a customised storage facility like a cold storage, then the situation turns out to be even worse. Not that there is no government service. There are FCI godowns, but there maintenance and availability can put the most complacent person in the world to shame. Although, private companies have now started to come up with their services, they are still going through their own troubles. Says Subarat Dash, a cold storage owner in Orissa, “While the government states that there are 104 cold stages in the state, the reality is different as there are merely 35 and 22 of them are owned by private parties. And even those are unable to meet the demand since we don’t have that many resources and the help from the government in negligible.”
While lack of storage is one aspect, the unavailability of proper infrastructure is another. What farm credit does to increase productivity (that of course no doubt is in poor state as has been discussed in the story related to farm credit), proper infrastructure does to the product prepared to be marketed. Says a report published by Ministry of Food Processing and Industries that India faces a food grain loss of Rs. 500 billion every year because of poor infrastructure. This is due to lack of post harvest infrastructure and inefficient supply chain management.
“No sirjee, I don’t face problem because I can’t grow crops, but the trouble is that I am not able to sell them in the way I want and at the price I want.” These are words of Ankur, who owns a sizable farm in Punjab, the state which was the main beneficiary of the Green Revolution. Similar situation is also faced by Jatan, a jute grower and marketer from West Bengal. The places may be far and wide, but poor conditions for agri-marketing is very near to what can be called homogeneous. Whether it is production of cash crops or food grains, average Indian farmers invariably face trouble in marketing their products. Most of the times they even fail to sell crops at the market price. But the real vices are more deeply rooted.
From the very beginning of a crop’s journey towards the market, a farmer starts struggling because of the loopholes in the existing system. Storage as such costs the most. Even if the farmer is ready to pay, there is lack of sufficient storage facilities. And if the farmer needs a customised storage facility like a cold storage, then the situation turns out to be even worse. Not that there is no government service. There are FCI godowns, but there maintenance and availability can put the most complacent person in the world to shame. Although, private companies have now started to come up with their services, they are still going through their own troubles. Says Subarat Dash, a cold storage owner in Orissa, “While the government states that there are 104 cold stages in the state, the reality is different as there are merely 35 and 22 of them are owned by private parties. And even those are unable to meet the demand since we don’t have that many resources and the help from the government in negligible.”
While lack of storage is one aspect, the unavailability of proper infrastructure is another. What farm credit does to increase productivity (that of course no doubt is in poor state as has been discussed in the story related to farm credit), proper infrastructure does to the product prepared to be marketed. Says a report published by Ministry of Food Processing and Industries that India faces a food grain loss of Rs. 500 billion every year because of poor infrastructure. This is due to lack of post harvest infrastructure and inefficient supply chain management.
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