Agro-Market Information and Farmers' Market Linkage: Way Forward

16 Pages Posted: 16 Jun 2015

See all articles by K.C. Siva Balan

K.C. Siva Balan

Department of Agricultural Extension- IIAT, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University; Department of Agricultural Extension- IIAT, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University

Jayalakshmi Umadikar

Independent

Suma Prashant

IITM's Rural Technology and Business Incubator

Sangeetha U.

Independent

Archana Prasad

Independent; IITM's Rural Technology and Business Incubator

Date Written: June 16, 2015

Abstract

This paper attempts to understand the information seeking behavior, market advisory preference of farmers and formulate suitable approaches for enhancing the market advisory services and suggest a few approaches, developing backward and forward linkages for farmers, for improving their profitability. Though farmers are adopting the latest crop production technologies to bring out best yield levels, the profitability is decided by the market forces only. Earlier studies have documented farmers rarely sell directly to consumers and there are significant price variations in the village markets. This information asymmetry will foster opportunistic behavior of other market actors which in turn traps farmers in vicious cycle of poverty. With a view to understand what kind of market information was most sought after by farmers and the sources from where they received this information, the authors carried out a research study in the Trichy district of Tamil Nadu, India. The results revealed that though farmers were aware of many of the sources providing market information such as the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Kissan Call Centre, etc. they primarily still sought the information from agro input dealers. The paper concludes with a note that market led extension approach with suitable ICT interventions will help the farmers in reaping better returns in a sustainable manner.

Keywords: Information seeking behavior, Market advisory preferences, Sources of market information, Market intelligence, Market advisory services, Information gap, Agricultural technology, Agriculture Advisory System, Mobile telephony applications

JEL Classification: Q13

Suggested Citation

Balan, K.C. Siva and Balan, K.C. Siva and Umadikar, Jayalakshmi and Prashant, Suma and U., Sangeetha and Prasad, Archana and Prasad, Archana, Agro-Market Information and Farmers' Market Linkage: Way Forward (June 16, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2618963 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2618963

K.C. Siva Balan

Department of Agricultural Extension- IIAT, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University ( email )

e-Extension Centre
Technology Park 5
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu 641003
India

HOME PAGE: http://futureextension@blogspot.in

Department of Agricultural Extension- IIAT, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University ( email )

Trichy, 641003
India

Jayalakshmi Umadikar

Independent ( email )

Suma Prashant

IITM's Rural Technology and Business Incubator

Madras
India

Sangeetha U.

Independent ( email )

IITM's Rural Technology and Business Incubator ( email )

Madras
India

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