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Agricultural Marketing – Characteristics: Bulkiness, Perishability, Wide Varietal Difference, Seasonality, Dispersed Production and Processing Needs for Consumption
The peculiar characteristics of agricultural produce, result in a very complicated marketing system.
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The peculiar characteristics of agricultural produce are:
(a) Bulkiness
(b) Perishability
(c) Wide varietal differences
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(d) Seasonality
(e) Dispersed production
(f) Processing needs for consumption.
These characteristics make the agricultural marketing a complicated system. Generally, the farmers sell their agricultural produce immediately after harvest in raw form without any processing. Since, only raw produce is marketed there arises a need for many intermediaries to operate between the producer and consumer.
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The path that goods take from producer to final consumer is called the marketing channel. The type and complexity of the marketing channel varies with different commodities. The roadside market is a very simple marketing channel, from producer/farmer directly to consumer(Vegetables). However, most products undergo further processing at different levels of the marketing channel and pass through many firms before they reach the ultimate consumer.
Agricultural Marketing – Classification on the Basis of Location: Local Market/Village Market, Primary Markets, Secondary Markets and Terminal Markets
Agricultural marketing comprises marketing of food grain, commercial crops, plantation crops, horticultural produce and semi-processed products.
Economists have divided market in different manners based on the frequency with which they are held, the type of products traded, the scale of transaction and the kind of marketing functions performed.
(a) On the basis of frequency with which they are held, markets can be classified into daily markets, weekly markets, biweekly markets and monthly markets.
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(b) Based on the types of products traded, we may classify as grain markets, cotton markets, fish market, fruit and vegetable markets etc.
(c) Based on the types of transactions held, we may classify into spot markets and forward markets.
(d) Based on the marketing functions performs, agricultural markets may be classified as Assembling, Wholesale and Distribution Markets.