Regulated Markets: The Farmers Participation at Ananthapur District of Andhra Pradesh

Abstract

Agricultural marketing is very much important today and everyone know that in the earlier years concentrated on improving in agricultural production, so today we are getting huge production with little land, but the problem is marketing of that huge produces. So it is fact that present scenario we need to concentrate on the marketing of the produce. For this purpose the governments created and developed the regulated markets. But there is a question, what is the level of participation of the farmers in that regulated markets, awareness on the benefits of the markets and schemes, factors determining the farmers to participation and not participation in the regulated markets. This research paper finds the answers to the questions markets are attracting the small and marginal farmers, whether farmers prefer to sell the produce in regulated markets? If they are not selling in regulated markets, why? Kind of Factors determining their participation in regulated markets, if they are participating, what benefits derived by participation, transaction costs are involved, mode of transportation used? Whether operations held at regulated market are favorable for Inclusive Growth? These are some of the problems we would like to address in this study at Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh as the case. In addition, secondary data also have been analyzed. More specifically, the objectives of the study include: 1) To identify the socio economic factors influencing the participation of the farmers in regulated agricultural markets; 2) The study the perceptions of the farmers about the various factors such as prices, transaction costs, etc; 3) The evaluation of the impact of agricultural marketing on the wellbeing of small and marginal farmers in the study area.  The study find that the major factors determining participation in the regulated agricultural markets are price, storage facilities, quick disposals and the speedy payment, since price differential is an important variable, strengthening regulated markets and making farmers participate is an important challenge in Andhra Pradesh. The