Theory
Agricultural Marketing: concepts and definitions of market, marketing, agricultural marketing, market structure, marketing mix and market segmentation, classification and characteristics of agricultural markets;demand, supply and producer’s surplus of agri-commodities: nature and determinants of demand and supply of farm products, producer’s surplus – meaning and its types, marketable and marketed surplus, factors affecting marketable surplus of agri-commodities; product life cycle ( PLC) and competitive strategies: meaning and stages in PLC; characteristics of PLC; strategies in different stages of PLC; pricing and promotion strategies: pricing considerations and approaches – cost based and competition based pricing; market promotion – advertising, personal selling, sales promotion and publicity – their meaning and merits & demerits; marketing process and functions: marketing process-concentration, dispersion and equalization; exchange functions – buying and selling; physical functions – storage, transport and processing; facilitating functions – packaging, branding, grading, quality control and labeling ( Agmark ) market functionaries and marketing channels: types and importance of agencies involved in agricultural marketing; meaning and definition of marketing channel;number of channel levels; marketing channels for different farm products; integration, efficiency, costs and price spread: meaning, definition and types of market integration; marketing efficiency; marketing costs, margins and price spread; factors affecting cost of marketing; reasons for higher marketing costs of farm commodities; ways of reducing marketing costs; role of Govt. in agricultural marketing: Public sector institutions- CWC, SWC, FCI, CACP & DMI – their objectives and functions; cooperative marketing in India; risk in marketing: Types of risk in marketing; speculation & hedging; an overview of futures trading; agricultural prices and policy: meaning and functions of price; administered prices; need for agricultural price policy; trade: Concept of International Trade and its need, theories of absolute and comparative advantage. Present status and prospects of international trade in agri-commodities; GATT and WTO; Agreement on Agriculture ( AoA) and its implications on Indian agriculture; IPR.