What is the role of rural marketing in rural development and what is the role of agencies for marketing of agricultural products?
The role of rural marketing in rural development is that it helps to open up the rural to the public for infrastructural development and for other social amenities, which can lead to multi- sectorial development of the rural areas.
Rural marketing determines the carrier of business activities from urban sectors to the rural regions as well as the marketing of various products manufactured by the non-agricultural workers from rural to urban areas. Here agriculture is first and also the main source of income. Rural market leads to major income in Indian economy. In India agriculture is the main source of income. Different schemes and easy policies in purchasing products and services increased purchasing power of the rural India. Social marketing efforts should begin with those natural ally audiences. Every community is different, so you will want to do some research and exploration to identify who your natural allies are. “Use those partnerships, and find those informal powers in the community. Rural growth is believed to be of higher importance in the country today than it was in the past in the process of the nation's growth. It is a strategy aimed at achieving increased productivity, greater socio-economic equality and aspiration, and stability in economic and social development. In India, there are still many people living in rural areas. Furthermore, There are approximately 90% of employees are residents who work in an assigned area in the countryside and aim to increase the local economy. The purpose of increasing in rural economy is to make fewer people living under the poverty line. Social marketing seeks to influence social behaviors not to benefit the marketer, but to benefit the target audience and the general society." Social marketing is the application of commercial marketing concepts and techniques to target populations to achieve the goal of positive social change. Strategizing marketing techniques helps to develop goods and services that have the best profit-making potential. The marketing strategy also helps to discover business areas that are affected by different factors and allows businesses to create plans to meet those changes. All the agencies more or less participate in assembling and distribution of agricultural products. Sometimes, agricultural commodities directly pass from producers to consumers. But in indirect marketing agricultural commodities generally move from producers to consumers through intermediaries or middlemen. NAFED is the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd. It was established on 2nd October 1958. It is registered under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act. Regulated market is wholesale market where buying and selling is regulated and controlled by the state government through the market committee. It aims at the elimination of unhealthy and unscrupulous practices reducing marketing charges and providing facilities to producers and sellers in the market. Agricultural marketing has an essential function to play in the overall agricultural growth. It provides farmers with economic security through fair and remunerative compensation for agricultural produce. Agricultural marketing brings producers and consumers together through a series of activities and thus becomes an essential element of the economy. The scope of agricultural marketing is not only limited with the final agricultural produce. It also focuses supply of agricultural inputs (factors) to the farmers. Agricultural marketing possess several features such as perishable products, regular demand, price fluctuation, inelastic demand, presence of intermediaries etc. Agricultural products are dealt with in agricultural market. Rural Marketing is a process which starts with a decision to produce a saleable farm commodity, and it involves all the aspects of market structure or system, both functional and institutional, based on technical and economic considerations, and includes pre and post harvest operations, assembling, grading, and storage. Agricultural produces like food grains and industrial inputs like cotton, oil seeds, sugarcane etc. occupied the central place of discussion during this period. The supply-chain activities of firms supplying agricultural inputs and of artisans in rural areas received secondary attention. Successful operation of marketing activities creates, maintains and increases the demand for goods and services in society. To meet this increased demand the companies need to increase the level of production in turn raising their income. This increase, in turn, increases the national income.