An Examination of Farmers Engagement in Assam’s Rural Periodic Markets

Abstract

The agricultural marketing scenario of Assam is having some distinct features due to its topographicalfactors. Several issues including intensity of flood etc., makes the agricultural marketing process achallenging task for the farmers as well as the other stakeholders. Often, it appears as a discouraging factorfor the farmers to produce certain crops because of issues related to storage and marketing. Primary marketsare the first connecting link between the producer and buyer of agricultural commodities. Thus theseavenues play a crucial role in providing remunerative return or a means of livelihood to the growers. Thereare mainly three major players in the agricultural marketing scenario of Assam. These are the periodicmarkets, daily markets and mobile markets. Rural periodic markets occupy a significant place for a state likeAssam, where 75 percent of the populations are dependent on agriculture for living directly as well asindirectly. More than 80 percent of the farmers are marginal or small in terms of land holding status. Due tosmall amount of disposable surplus, primary markets are the major avenues for disposal of their produces.Apart from livelihood creation, periodic markets also help in the process of value addition of agriculturecommodities by providing scope for forward and backward linkages for the farmers. In this paper attempt ismade to analyze farmer’s participation in the periodic market of Assam. The study is carried out in theSonitpur district of Assam. The work is primarily descriptive in nature. Primary and secondary data wereused for the study. Both qualitative and quantitative approaches were followed to collect the desiredinformation. It was observed that primary markets are the major avenues for disposal of agricultural surplus.The prevalent prices of primary market, distance to the nearest market, volume of marketable surplus etc.,influences the marketing decision of the growers. The study suggest for solving several issues for creating aconducive marketing platform for the benefits of the growers.