Impact assessment of agricultural price forecasting and farmers’ perception

Development and dissemination of timely and reliable market information can play a big role in doubling the farmer's income by 2022. Market intelligence enables the farmers to take effective production and marketing decisions. Under Network Project on Market Intelligence funded by ICAR, Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University had developed and disseminated a total 52 price forecasts of selected six agricultural commodities through various modes like, university website, university monthly magazine, pamphlets in APMCs, newspapers, Youtube, SMS, farmers training programmes, etc. The impact assessment of those forecasts covering total 180 farmers undertaken at the end of the project period. The results revealed that the main source of price information for the farmers was their fellow farmers followed by trader/commission agent and network project. Nearly 91.6% of farmers informed that they received price forecast regularly. More than 50% of farmers felt that the price forecasts were reliable, adequate, and timely and frequent. Similarly, about half of the farmers expressed satisfaction regarding the above attributes of price forecasts provided by the market intelligence project centre. The time of sale, duration of storage, and price forecasts helped farmers deciding the cropping pattern and consequently their farm income. Bringing more awareness among the farming community about market intelligence and motivating them for making use of the same will be critical to raise their incomes from current levels. The establishment and functioning of Agricultural Market Intelligence Centers in all the state Agricultural Universities in coordination with state Agricultural Marketing Departments can play a crucial role in this regard.