A Study on Stakeholder's Perception on Present and New Marketing Systems and Price Information in Uttar Pradesh

This paper has explored the perception of farmers regarding the existing and new agricultural marketing systems and consumers’ perception regarding modern organized retail using a structured questionnaire. The study is based on the survey of 140 farmers, 20 traders and 20 consumers covering three districts, namely, Varanasi, Azamgarh and Gazipur of Uttar Pradesh. The study has argued that improvement in the marketing system can only be done through assessing the flaws in present system by taking into account farmers’ perception and also through understanding of the expectations of consumers from agricultural markets. The study has found that, on an average, farmers were not satisfied with the marketing practices in the regulated markets. On the other hand, consumers were very much satisfied with the modern organized retailing. The study has suggested that market committee should improve the cleaning/grading mechanism, develop boarding/lodging facilities, check the exploitative behaviour of traders and maintain transparency regarding price information. The constraints with e-NAM initiatives in stakeholders’ perspective include lack of proper infrastructure and capacity building of the stakeholders for the success of the system. It has also suggested encouraging of public-private partnership in the agricultural marketing and moving towards modern organized retailing.