Agriculture Marketing and Trade

Agricultural Horticultural Produce Marketing: Concepts and definitions of market, marketing, agricultural marketing, market structure, marketing mix and market segmentation, classification and characteristics of agricultural markets; demand, supply and producer’s surplus of agri commodities: nature and determinants of demand and supply of farm products, producer’s surplus – meaning and its types, marketable and marketed surplus, factors affecting marketable surplus of agri-commodities; pricing and promotion strategies: pricing considerations and approaches – cost based and competition based pricing; market promotion – advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity – meaning, merits and demerits; marketing process and functions: Marketing process concentration, dispersion and equalization; exchange functions – buying and selling; physical functions – storage, transport and processing; facilitating functions – packaging, branding, grading, quality control and labelling (Agmark); Market functionaries and marketing channels: Types and importance of agencies involved in agricultural marketing; meaning and definition of marketing channel; number of channel levels; marketing channels for different farm products; Integration, efficiency, costs and price spread: Meaning, definition and types of market integration; marketing efficiency; marketing costs, margins and price spread; factors affecting cost of marketing; reasons for higher marketing costs of farm commodities; ways of reducing marketing costs; Role of Govt. in agricultural marketing: Public sector institutions- CWC, SWC, FCI, CACP and DMI – their objectives and functions; cooperative marketing in India; Risk in marketing: Types of risk in marketing; speculation and hedging; an overview of futures trading; Agricultural prices and policy: Meaning and functions of price; administered prices; need for innovations in agricultural price policy. Trade: Concept of International Trade and its need, theories of absolute and comparative advantage. Present status and prospects of international trade in agri-commodities; WTO; Agreement on Agriculture (AoA) and its implications on Indian agriculture; IPR. Role of government in agricultural marketing. Role of APMC and its relevance in the present-day context.