3.7. Problems facing Agriculture Marketing in India

1. Poor Warehousing Facilities: The Indian farmers lack proper warehousing facilities for storing the agriculture produce. The facilities are so poor that the crops are spoiled in the warehouses. Cultivators fail to get good price for its product.

2. Poor Transportation Facilities: The roads are unusable in many villages. The connectivity of the village roads with the main roads is still missing in many parts of the country. Thus it is difficult to take output to the markets.

3. Problem of Distress Selling: The poverty and indebtedness reduce the capacity to wait for better prices of crops. The cultivators are forced to sell the output to the moneylenders at the cheap price to clear off the debts.

4. Infrastructure Bottlenecks and Corruption in Mandis: The farmers may have to wait before selling its produce in the mandis. In some states mandis are very far from the villages. The warehousing facilities are not well-developed in these mandis. The intermediaries charge their own commission from the farmers. The unnecessary deductions are made on the pretext of low quality of produce.

5. Lack of awareness of future market: The volume in the commodity market forms a very small percentage of total agriculture trading in India. There is an urgent need to educate farming communities to use commodity markets.

6. Lack of agro-Processing at large scale: Processing of agricultural products especially perishable commodities forms only a small percentage of the total production. The major part of the total production is sold in raw form so farmers get lower prices for their products.