Asymmetric Effects of Cereal Crops on Agriculture Economic Growth: Case Study of Pakistan

Abstract

Agricultural marketing includes all activities which add value to agricultural products as they move from areas of agricultural production to ultimate consumption points. An effective and efficient marketing system is required in order to ensure fair returns to stakeholders but unfortunately little attention was paid to this sector in Pakistan. This resulted in welfare risk to stakeholders as price variation and values are common phenomena in the country. Public and private sectors jointly run agricultural marketing system in the country, as public sector is responsible for framing and implementing rules and regulation whereas private sector operates the system. Agricultural markets are governed under the Agricultural Produce Markets Ordinance 1978 which needs to be updated Due to poor post-harvest management practices, almost 25-40% produce is wasted which caused considerable value losses. In this chapter, an effort has been made to describe theoretical foundation of agricultural marketing along with highlighting the marketing system of major and minor agricultural commodities in Pakistan and the role of various institutions and regulations. Marketing efficiency is often understood in terms of marketing margins, physical losses and state of market competition. These indicators are also discussed in this chapter. Further, a section is devoted to identify major agricultural marketing problems with their possible solutions