Agricultural Marketing, Economic Benefits and Social Groups: Exploring Vegetable Cultivation in Rural India

Indian agriculture improved tremendously after the introduction of green revolution during the late 1960’s. This led to India achieving self-sufficiency in production of food grains. But this capital-intensive cereal based agriculture reached saturation level of productivity, characterized by non-economic viability and environmental instability. Because of this, there have been efforts to diversify the agricultural crops farmed in the country, and vegetable farming has been emerging as one of the most important sector of the economy due to increasing demand of vegetable in the country, especially in urban centers. More than two-third of the Indian population is vegetarian in their food habits. Also, the diverse agro-climatic conditions of the India are ideal for the production of different kinds ofvegetables. Liberalization of agri-business also accelerated the expansion of vegetable cultivation in the country, as exports of crude and processed products increased during last decades. Farmers are facing several problems, especially of marketing of their products after harvest. An efficient vegetable marketing with the shortest market channel is urgently needed for sustainable and economically viable development of vegetable cultivation in rural India. Contract farming with assured marketing is also an important strategy for vegetable farmers’ survival.