Farmers-market encouraging local food systems with potential for better knowledge sharing and ensuring financial sustainability

The concept of Vocal for Local can play a vital role in agricultural development by addressing the issue of poor marketing access through development of local food systems. Realising the importance of providing markets close to production and reducing the long chain of intermediaries, the Government has introduced various reforms in agricultural marketing to encourage direct contact of producer with buyers at local level leading to emergence of marketing models like farmers-market. An attempt has been made in the present paper to analyse the potential of farmers-market for improving integration with supply chain, ensuring financial sustainability, facilitating knowledge sharing and bringing market orientation among farmers. The findings are based primarily on descriptive analysis of information collected from selected farmers visiting Siddipet Rythu Bazaar operating successful in Siddipet district of Telangana. The analysis reveals that the Siddipet Rythu Bazaar is the only channel for marketing of produce for majority of the selected farmers. Farmers perceive that direct contact without the involvement of any intermediary is one of the biggest benefits offered by the market. Direct contact not only has helped them in getting better price for their produce but also helped them in getting feedback from the customers leading to preparing the produce as per their requirement. More than two-third of the selected farmers have started preparing the producer as per market requirement. Better price realisation has helped in income enhancement to the tune of 9.42%. These findings highlight the potential of farmers-market for better supply chain integration and financial suitability of farmers.