TY  - BOOK
AU  - Nadhika K
AU  - Jayasree Krishnankutty (Guide)
TI  - Analysis of marketing interventions in vegetables for the promotion of marginal and smallholder farmers
U1  - 630.71 
PY  - 2022///
CY  - Vellanikkara
PB  - Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture
KW  - Agricultural Extension
N1  - PhD
N2  - Kerala, even with its rich agricultural heritage, depends on neighboring states 
like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to meet the vegetable demand. To phase out this 
scenario, the state government initiated many schemes and programs to promote 
vegetable cultivation among smallholder farmers. Realizing that marketing is the area 
where smallholder farmers are the weakest, attempts to promote small holder 
marketing were also devised by the Government. Analysis of such interventions will 
help to see how far they have benefitted the smallholder farmers. 
The present study analyzed the marketing interventions like VFPCK, Ecoshop, 
Kudumbasree Nattuchantha and Agricultural Wholesale Market. The objectives of the 
study include identification of the components of market-led extension employed by 
the marketing interventions, analyzing and comparing the marketing efficiency 
through these interventions, studying the marketing behaviour of beneficiary farmers, 
examining the constraints experienced by the farmers as well as the implementing 
agencies and suggesting ways to enhance the marketing system for better inclusion of 
marginal and small holder farmers. 
Palakkad district was purposively selected as the location for the selection of 
VFPCK farmers’ market, Kudumbasree Nattuchantha market and Ecoshop. Two 
markets each under the selected market interventions were selected randomly. One 
market under the three Urban Wholesale Markets and one market under the three 
Rural Wholesale Markets were selected randomly. A sample of 20 farmers each from 
the different market interventions were selected randomly to form a total sample size 
of 160 farmers and 40 stakeholders including the marketing officials were selected 
randomly. 
Analysis of profile characteristics revealed that more than 50 per cent of the 
farmers belonged to the middle aged category and 77 per cent had at least high school 
level education. About 60 per cent of the farmers depended on agriculture alone and 
the majority of the farmers with vegetable area less than 0.25 ha and 0.25 to 0.4 ha 
had an annual income of less than 2 lakhs. More than 50 per cent of the farmers used 
the selected main marketing interventions. 
Identification of components of market led extension employed by each 
intervention revealed that VFPCK provided better market led extension services to its 
beneficiaries. The binary logistic regression analysis revealed that variables like 
owned land, leased land, area under vegetables, organizational membership and 
source of price information showed a significant relation with the satisfaction of 
farmers towards market led extension components. The analysis of marketing 
efficiency of channels under each intervention revealed that marketing channel 4 
under the Ecoshop showed highest efficiency for all the crops and the net price 
received by the producer was also high for this channel. 
A scale was constructed to measure the marketing behaviour of the vegetable 
growers and the results revealed that the beneficiaries under Ecoshops and 
Agricultural Wholesale Markets showed very good marketing behaviour. Factor 
analysis using the principal component method was used to reduce the variables into 
four predictor factors. The results revealed that production factor, proficiency factor 
and social participation factor had significant influence over the marketing behaviour 
of farmers. Cluster analysis was carried out to categorize the smallholder farmers into 
different groups based on their common traits and four clusters identified were named 
as neoteric farmers, full time farmers, contemporary part time farmers and 
economically sound part time farmers. Discriminant analysis confirmed the 
correctness of the predicted group membership of cases under each cluster to be 98
per cent. 
Competition from other state produce, improper utilisation of surplus produce, 
poor market infrastructure, delayed payment and lack of coordination among the 
producers were some of the constraints faced by the smallholder farmers. Facilitation 
of market oriented production among farmers, provision for value addition and 
processing of surplus produce, establishing better market infrastructure, ensuring 
timely payments to farmers and proper channelization of government support towards 
market infrastructure development were some of the key suggestions for improving 
the marketing interventions for better inclusion of smallholder farmers
UR  - https://krishikosh.egranth.ac.in/handle/1/5810208132
ER  -