1.4. Facilities Needed for Farmer in Marketing

In order to have best advantage in marketing of his agricultural produce the farmer should enjoy certain basic facilities.

♤ He should have proper facilities for storing his goods.

♤ He should have holding capacity, in the sense, that he should be able to wait for times when he could get better prices for his produce and not dispose of his stocks immediately after the harvest when the prices are very low.

♤ He should have adequate and cheap transport facilities which could enable him to take his surplus produce to the mandi rather than dispose it of in the village itself to the village money-lender-cum-merchant at low prices.

♤ He should have clear information regarding the market conditions as well as about the ruling prices, otherwise may be cheated. There should be organized and regulated markets where the farmer will not be cheated by the "dalals" and "arhatiyas".

♤ The number of intermediaries should be as small as possible, so that the middleman's profits are reduced. This increases the returns to the farmers.