Can Production Driven Market Sustain Agriculture and Rural Livelihoods?

Market driven agricultural economy particularly after globalization, is showing the signs of severe fatigue on the rural faces in India. Market instabilities are a result of more centralized and long distance distribution of agricultural produce and products for marketing. Market preferences are leading to monoculture, introduction of high cost and chemical practices like inadaptable hybrid / high yielding varieties, indiscriminate use of fertilizers/chemicals and as a result, land/soil degradation. Erosion of agro-biodiversity is the most disheartening consequence of this market driven agricultural entrepreneurship.

Can Market be Production Driven!

A serious thought process has to begin to revive the biodiversity, multi-cropping based cropping systems in accordance with agro-climatic conditions of a given location or region. The approach towards development of technology has to be endogenous so that it becomes situation friendly. For example, breeding of high yielding varieties or hybrids has to make use of locally available, superior genetic resources of the same regions of introduction. Introduction of exotics can be done by taking into consideration the evolutionary agro climatic conditions of the genetic bases. Cropping pattern and varietal introduction should be primarily driven by suitability to climate, soil and farming practices. Considering the evolutionary conditions of genetic resources is the sure way ensuring adaptability. Similarly, market development needs to be promoted for the crops and products of the regions. Mainstream market initiatives should absorb the local production guided by suitable cropping system. Market driving the cropping pattern is not sustainable since creating suitable conditions for inadaptable crops and species is not practical / feasible. This is the root cause of high cost of production, frequent crop failures, unmanageable pest and disease incidences and ecological imbalances.

Market initiatives, guided by cropping pattern and production systems have positive impact on the ground. It promotes sustainable agriculture driven by agro climatic conditions. It sustains the livelihoods of farmers without affecting the ecological balance and agro biodiversity. Such initiatives are decentralized marketing relying more on local produce and products. These market tendencies are stable also. Block level shandies, agricultural produce fairs at taluk levels, corporate sectors decentralizing the supply chain by linking their outlets to local productions and promoting local food produce in urban and semi urban areas are the possible leads in this direction of sustainable marketing practices.

Policy Interventions

Promotion of medium, small and very small entrepreneurship in supply chain and marketing can give good results in this direction. Policy interventions from development of technology to marketing management are crucial to realize the objectives of sustainable livelihoods and revive the agricultural economy in rural areas.