Agricultural marketing

 
1. Marketable Surplus
The marketable surplus is that quantity of the produce which can be made 
available to the non-farm population of the country. It is a theoretical concept of surplus. 
The marketable surplus is the residual left with the producers farmers after meeting his 
requirement for family consumption, farm needs for seeds and feed for cattle, payment to 
labour in kind, payment to artisans, blacksmith, potter and mechanic payment to landlord 
as rent and social and religious payments in kind. This may be expressed as follows : 
MS = P - C  
where 
MS
= Marketable surplus
P
=Total production, and
C 
= Total requirements (family consumption, farm needs, payment 
to labour, artisans, landlord and payment for social and religious work) 
2. Marketed Surplus
Marketed surplus is that quantity of the produce which the producer farmer 
actually sells in the market, irrespective of the requirements for family consumption, farm 
needs and other payments. The marketed surplus may be more, less or equal to the 
marketable surplus. 
Whether the marketed surplus increases with the increase in production has been 
under continual theoretical security. It has been argued that poor and subsistence farmers 
sell that part of the produce which is necessary to enable them to meet their cash 

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obligations. This results in distress sale on some farms. In such a situation any increase in 
the production of marginal and small farms should first result in increased on-farm 
consumption. 
An increase in the real income of farmers also has a positive effect on on-farm 
consumption because of positive income of farmers also has a positive effect on on-farm 
consumption because of positive income elasticity. Since the contribution of this group to 
the total marketed quantity is not substantial the overall effect of increase in production 
must lead to an increase in the marketed surplus.