An Introspection of Agricultural Marketing Reforms in India

India is an agrarian economy, with at least 55 per cent of the population making their livelihood from agriculture and related activities. Agricultural produce that was essentially bartered in India eventually developed into product with a certain amount of economic value. Consequently, Indian agricultural markets evolved from uncontrolled village haats to regulated markets such as APMCs. This paper is an attempt to examine the reforms introduced in agricultural marketing and its impact on the Indian economy. With the introduction of marketing reforms, there has been an increase in the food grain availability, number of regulated markets, cold storage and its capacity. Consequently, the share of agriculture in the total GVA also increased giving the much-needed momentum to the agricultural exports from India. Despite these advancements in agricultural marketing, the APMC system has been plagued by inefficiencies such as high market margins, unethical trader behaviour, minimum government investment and the like and even the recent marketing strategies like direct marketing, contract farming and online trade have not been able to yield the best outcomes. The study suggests that the need of a strong public sector engagement and the formulation of appropriate marketing strategies based on producer participation.