1.8. Principles of Scientific Marketing for Farmers

The tendency among the farmers to market their produce has been increasing. Production is complete only when the produce is marketed at a price remunerative to the farmer. Increasing specialization in production of higher marketable/ marketed surplus of the produce and alternative channels of marketing has increased the importance of the marketing activity for the farmers. However, marketing activity should be guided by certain basic principles which are briefly explained. The farmers can gain more if they follow the following principles of scientific marketing:

♤ Always bring the produce for sale after cleaning it: - Impurities, when present, lower the price offered by the traders-buyers in the market. The fall in price is more than the extent of impurity present in the produce would warrant. Clean produce attracts more buyers.

♤ Sell different qualities of products separately: - The produce of different varieties should be marketed separately. It has been observed that when different varieties of products are marketed separately, the farmers get a higher price because of the buyer’s preference for specific varieties.

♤ Sell the produce after grading it: - Graded produce is sold off quickly. The additional income generated by the adoption of grading and standardization is more than the cost incurred in the process of grading and standardization. This shows that there is an incentive for the farmers for the production of good quality products.

♤ Keep abreast of market information: - Price information helps him to take decisions about when and where to sell the produce, so that a better price may be obtained.

♤ Carry bags/packs of standard weights: - Farmers should weigh their produce and fill each bag with a fixed quantity. Majority of the farmers do not weigh their produce before taking it for sale and suffer loss by way of a possible malpractice in weighing, or they may have to make excess payments in transit (octroi, transport costs, etc.).

♤ Avoid immediate post-harvest sales:- The prices of the produce touch the lowest level in the peak marketing season. Farmers can get better prices by availing of warehouses facilities

existing in their areas. Farmers can meet their cash needs by pledging the warehouse receipt to nationalized banks.

♤ Patronize co-operative marketing societies:- Farmers can get better prices by sales through a cooperative and marketing society and can avoid the possibility of being cheated. The cost of marketing particularly the transportation cost for farmers having a small quantity of marketable surplus is minimized, for transportation is arranged co-operatively by the society and the profit earned by the society is shared among its members.

♤ Sell the produce in regulated markets:- The farmers should take their produce for sale to the nearly regulated markets rather than sell them in village or unregulated markets. In regulated markets marketing charges are on very few items. They get the sales slips in the regulated markets, which show the quantity of the produce marketed and the amount of charges deducted from the values of the produce. Sales slips protect farmers against the malpractices of deliberate erroneous accounting or unauthorized deductions.