Faculty: Prof. Sanjeev Kapoor
Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow
Email: sanjeev@iiml.ac.in
Introduction:
Marketing of agricultural products is an integral part of any policy for agricultural development. The course provides an incisive analysis on agricultural output marketing with special emphasis on marketing functions, efficiency and institutions. The objective of this course is to assist the students in understanding the structure and working of the agriculture and food marketing system, to examine how this system affects the farmers, consumers and middlemen, and to illustrate how this dynamic marketing system should respond to changing agribusiness environment over time.
Contents
· Understanding Agriculture and Food Marketing System – Perceptions of Stakeholders (1)
· Interlinking Agriculture Production and Marketing (1)
· Approaches for Analyzing Agriculture and Food Markets (1)
· Agriculture Marketing – Channel Selection (2)
· Evaluation of Agriculture Markets – Marketing Cost and Efficiency (2)
· Agriculture Supply Response (1)
· Designing Market Information System (2)
· Agriculture Commodity Trading (3)
· Agriculture Price Analysis (1)
· Government Intervention in Agriculture Marketing (1)
· Reforms in Agriculture Market Institutions (1)
· International Trade in Agriculture Commodities (2)
· Future Trading in Agriculture Commodities (2)
Figures in parentheses indicate tentative number of sessions for each topic.
Evaluation:
Quiz : 20
End term : 60
Class participation : 20
References:
1. Kohls, R.L and N. Uhl, 2002, Marketing of Agricultural Products, Prentice Hall of India, New Delhi.
2. Acharya, S.S. and N.L. Agarwal, Agricultural Marketing in India, Oxford and IBM, New Delhi.
3. Crawford, I.M, 1997, Agricultural and Food Marketing Management, FAO, Rome.
Assignment # 1
Once a farmer X, consumer C and middleman M were taking tea at the village shop. Consumer C was worried by increasing prices of agriculture products and told to his friend “Don’t you think that food prices are too high now these days? Yes, said his friend, farmers and middlemen are charging us too much. Farmer X got angry and told you should not criticize farming community. He further explained that prices are not covering my cost of production, and we farmers get only about 22 per cent of the money that you spend on food. The middlemen take the rest of your money.
Spilling his tea, middleman M jumped into the conversation to defend himself. He told rising food prices are not our fault. We just give consumers what they want, including packaged, processed and highly quality products round the year. This cost money, but we have to make our system efficient.
Who is right here: X, C or M?
Why do they have such different views of agriculture prices and marketing?