Tropentag, September 17 - 19, 2013 in Stuttgart-Hohenheim "Agricultural development within the rural-urban continuum"

Small Holder Farmers Market Participation in Rural-Urban Continuum to Improve the Livelihood Condition in Developing Countries

Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics, Germany

Abstract

The majority of the population in developing countries depend on agriculture for their livelihood. Focus of this research is mainly on smallholder vegetable growers in India participating in different chains for marketing their produce across rural and urban areas. The perishable nature of agricultural produces such as vegetables provides challenges to analyse the supply chains in order to estimate transaction costs and to analyse chain efficiency. A reduction of the transaction costs might encourage farmers towards resource intensification while increasing their family income. The co-existing market outlets with competing conditions includes local markets where farmers directly provide fresh products locally where rural or urban consumers as a prominent outlet served by local traders, Co-operatives, APMC (Agricultural Produce Market Committee) and wholesalers that serve as a clearing house between surplus and deficit regions. However the individual small farmers are often marginal participants in the value chains. Small holders in developing countries like India face numerous problems and constraints while marketing the produce like limited access to physical and financial resources, in turn restricts their opportunities increase production, resulting in high transaction costs in the market chain. These farmers lack bargaining power, and, as a result, there is an unequal distribution of value among the actors in the market chain, more prominent in perishable seasonal agricultural commodities. The research objective aims at identifying the efficient value chains, analysing the transaction cost through socioeconomic indicators and finally recommendation for improving the livelihood condition of the small and marginal farmers of the developing world.

Keywords: India, livelihood, market participation, smallholder farmers

Contact Address: Divya Rajanna, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Agricultural Economics, Robert-Koch-Platz 4, 10099 Berlin, Germany, e-mail: divya.econgmail.com