Agriculture marketing definition concept scope and Subject Matter

 

Agriculture marketing concept :
The term agricultural marketing is composed of two words – agriculture and marketing. Agriculture, in the broadest sense, means activities aimed at the use of natural resources for human welfare, i.e., it includes all the primary activities of production. But, generally, it is used to mean growing and/or raising crops and livestock.

 Marketing encompasses a series of activities involved in moving the goods from the point of production to the point of consumption. It includes all activities involved in the creation of time, place, form and possession utility.

Definition by authors :

Philip Kotler: has defined marketing as a human activity directed at satisfying the needs and wants through exchange process. 

According to Thomsen the study of agricultural marketing comprises all the operations, and the agencies conducting them, involved in the movement of farm produced foods, raw materials and their derivatives, such as textiles, from the farms to the final consumers, and the effects of such operations on farmers, middlemen and consumers. 

According to the National Commission on Agriculture (XII Report, 1976), agricultural marketing is a process which starts with a decision to produce a saleable farm commodity, and it involves all the aspects of market structure or system, both functional and institutional, based on technical and economic considerations, and includes pre- and post-harvest operations, assembling, grading, storage, transportation and distribution.

Acharya: has described, in a dynamic and growing agricultural sector, the agricultural marketing system ought to be understood and developed as a link between the farm and the non-farm sectors. A dynamic and growing agricultural  sector requires fertilizers, pesticides, farm equipment's, machinery, diesel, electricity, packing material and repair services which are produced and supplied by the industry and non-farm enterprises. The expansion in the size of farm output stimulates forward linkages by providing surpluses of food and natural fibers which require transportation, storage, milling or processing, packaging and retailing to the consumers. These functions are obviously performed by non-farm enterprises. Further, if the increase in agricultural production is accompanied by a rise in real incomes of farm families, the demand of these families for non-farm consumer goods goes up as the proportion of income spent on non-food consumables and durables tends to rise with the increase in real per capital income. Several industries, thus find new markets for their products in the farm sector.

American Marketing Association: defined marketing as the performance of business activities that directs the flow of goods and services from producers to users.

Agricultural marketing, therefore, can be defined as comprising of all activities involved in supply of farm inputs to the farmers and movement of agricultural products from the farms to the consumers. Agricultural marketing system includes the assessment of demand for farm-inputs and their supply, post-harvest handling of farm products, performance of various activities required in transferring farm products from farm gate to processing industries and/or to ultimate consumers, assessment of demand for farm products and public policies and programmes relating to the pricing, handling, and purchase and sale of farm inputs and agricultural products. Of late trade in the domestic and international markets also become the part of it.

Role of Agricultural Marketing objective ~ Agriculture economics notes (economicsansari.blogspot.com)

Scope and Subject Matter

Agricultural marketing in a broader sense is concerned with the marketing of farm products produced by farmers and of farm inputs and services required by them in the production of these farm products. Thus, the subject of agricultural marketing includes product marketing as well as input marketing. The subject of output marketing is as old as civilization itself. The importance of output marketing has become more conspicuous in the recent past with the increased marketable surplus of the crops and other agricultural commodities following the technological breakthrough. On one hand surplus production in agriculture resulted in problem of distribution to consumption centres and on the other transformed agriculture into a commercial venture where market needs came to the lime lite. Input marketing is a comparatively new subject. Farmers in the past used such farm sector inputs as local seeds and farmyard manure. These inputs were available with them; the purchase of inputs for production of crops from the market by the farmers was almost negligible.

importance of farm inputs – improved seeds, fertilizers, insecticides and pesticides, farm machinery, implements and credit – in the production of farm products has increased in recent decades. The new agricultural technology is input-responsive. Thus, the scope of agricultural marketing must include both product marketing and input marketing. In this book, the subject-matter of agricultural marketing has been dealt with; both from the theoretical and practical points of view. It covers what the system is, how it functions, and how the given methods or techniques may be modified to get the maximum benefits. Specially, the subject of agricultural marketing includes marketing functions, agencies, channels, efficiency and costs, price spread and market integration, producer's surplus, marketing institutions, government policy and research, imports/exports of agricultural commodities and commodity and futures trading.