agricultural marketing at the end of this lesson you will be able to describe agricultural marketing with its definition this was the new role of agricultural marketing explained the importance of agricultural marketing introduction to agricultural marketing in most of your homes the food you eat is obviously cooked by your mother we know that raw materials required to cook these dishes are cultivated by farmers somewhere around the world do you know how the ingredients required to prepare the food reach your house from the farmland where they are cultivated it all happens systematically due to the process known as agricultural marketing the process involves traders wholesalers retailers etc in this topic we shall learn about agricultural marketing in detail agricultural marketing as the name implies the term agricultural marketing defines two fields agriculture and marketing agriculture refers to the process of producing goods by raising crops and livestock whereas marketing is an activity used to sell those goods thus the combined term agricultural marketing plays a major role in moving the agricultural products from a farm to the consumer according to the National Commission on agriculture agricultural marketing is defined as a process from which the farmer 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 harvest and post-harvest operations such as assembling grading storage transportation and distribution in general agricultural marketing is composed of two processes namely input marketing and prior marketing input marketing deals with the marketing of farm inputs to the farmers like fertilizers pesticides farm machinery diesel electricity etc whereas product marketing deals with the marketing of agricultural outcome products and the movement flow from farmers primary traders wholesalers importers exporters and retailers thus agricultural marketing can be generally defined as the combination of all activities right from the supply of farm inputs to the farmers to the movement of agricultural products from farm to the consumer let us discuss the new role of agricultural marketing while comparing with the traditional practices of agricultural marketing over the last six decades agricultural marketing faced a tremendous growth due to several factors some of them are increase in the supply of agricultural commodities increase in urbanization increase in income levels increasing exports to overseas markets and changes in the degree of government intervention in agricultural markets thus the new role of agricultural marketing starts right from the time of decision making about what to produce which variety to produce and how to prepare the product for marketing now let us deal with the importance of agricultural marketing for optimization of resource use and output management increase in farm income widening of markets growth of agro based industries price signals adoption and spread of new technology employment creation addition to national income better living and creation of the utility let us discuss them one by one optimization of resource use and output management an efficient agricultural marketing system leads to optimal usage of resources thereby increasing the marketable surplus also it effectively implies is modern inputs to the field which achieves a sustainable growth rate in the agricultural sector increase in farm income an efficient marketing system controls the number of middlemen in the marketing process and ensures maximum income for farmers this approaches the farmers to directly deal with a concerned retailer widening of markets an efficient and well noted Marketing System definitely widens their products market across the country and even outside the country this will endear eclis help to increase the demand of their product and provide higher income to farmers growth of agro based industries a well efficient marketing system helps in developing the number of agro based industries and encourages the development process of the economy Raley's agro based industries like cotton jute and sugar depend directly on agriculture for the supply of raw materials price signals a good marketing system helps the farmers to plan their agricultural production in accordance with the economy needs this is done by transmitting price signals next let us move on to adoption and spread of new technology an efficient marketing system helps the farmers to adopt upgrading technologies for their agricultural processes employment creation since this marketing system requires several processes like packaging transportation distribution it provides various employment opportunities like commission agent regulating staff retailers etc addition to national income by doing suitable marketing for the products the value and sale ability of the product increase which increases the gross national product that is GNP better living does marketing activity not only increases the economy of the farmer and his family but also helps the poor people who want to consume their food products at low cost the making their lives better creation of utility as we know the marketing system adds value to the product but in addition to this marketing system also adds four types of utilities to the product they are form utility by changing the forms of agricultural products it becomes more useful than its original form plays utility since the marketing system has the main function as transportation products shift from one place to another and create a place utility for products time utility another marketing function storage adds time utility to the product and keeps availing the products whenever a need arises position utility since the main motive of marketing is buying and selling each neighboring product has a wide position utility conclusion we can conclude this topic by saying that agricultural marketing not only encourages the economy of farmers but also accelerates the pace of our country's economy summary in this lesson you have learned about the definition of agricultural marketing new role of agricultural marketing the importance of agricultural marketing