AGRICULTURAL MARKETING
Agriculture markets are regulated in India through the APMC Acts.
» According to the provisions of the APMC acts of the states, every APMC (Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee) is authorised to collect market fees from the buyers.
» Traders in the prescribed manner on the sale of notified agricultural produce.
» All this suggests that a single point market fee system is necessary for facilitating free movement of produce, bringing price stabilisation, and reducing price differences between the producer and consumer market segments.
» The cleaning, grading and packaging of agricultural produce before sale by the formars have not been popularised by these market committees on a sufficient scale.
E - CHOUPAL
The e-choupal, the first private sector initiative in agricultural marketing is a business platform consisting of a set of organisational sub-systems and interfaces connecting formers to global markets.
» The e-choupal business platform consists of three layers.
» Each of the three layers is characterised by three key elements.
i) The infrastructure (Physical or organisational) through which transactions take place.
ii) The entity (person or organisation) orchestrating the transactions
iii) The geographical coverage of the layer.
TRIFED
The government established TRIFED (Tribal co-operative Marketing Development Federation of India Ltd.) in 1987 August.
» The basic aim of TRIFED was to save tribals from exploitation by private traders and to offer them remunerative prices for their minor forest produce and surplus agriculture products.
» TRIFED started functioning in 1988, April.
» TRIFED plays the role of an agent of FCI for government purchase of wheat and rice.
» It is also an agent of agriculture and co-operation department of the government for purchase of cereals, pulses and oil-seeds.
NAFED
NAFED (National Agricultural co-operative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.) has been established in the co-operative sector at the national level for marketing of agriculture products.
AGRICULTURAL CREDIT
Three types of loans are provided to Indian formers to meet their financial requirements
i) Short - term loans
ii) Medium - term loans
iii) Long - term loans
Short - term loans:
Short term loans are provided for a period of less than 15 months to meet out expenses of routine farming and domestic consumptions.
» This type of loan is demanded by farmers for purchasing seeds, fertilizers and for meeting out family requirements.
Medium - term Loans:
Medium term loans are provided for a period of 15 months to 5 years to purchase agricultural equipment, animals and for land improvement.
Long - term Loans:
Long term loans are provided for a period of more than 5 year.
» This type of loan is taken by the farmers to purchases land and expensive agricultural equipment and for repayment of old loans.
Sources of Agricultural Loans
The Indian farmer can acquire the above types of loans from two sources.
i) Non-institutional sources like money lenders, landlords, big businessmen.
ii) Institutional source like commercial banks, co-operative banks and governments sources.
