Analysis of marketing interventions in vegetables for the promotion of marginal and smallholder farmers

Abstract

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.