Do farmers benefit from organised retailing?: A review Narayanamoorthy A.*, Alli P.**, Suresh R.*** *Department of Economics and Rural Development, Alagappa University, Karaikudi-630 003, Tamil Nadu, E-mail: na_narayana@hotmail.com; narayana64@gmail.com **Economics Division, Vellore Institute Technology, Vellore-632 014, Tamil Nadu ***Department of Economics and Rural Development, Alagappa University, Karaikudi-630 003, Tamil Nadu Online published on 23 October, 2017. Summary In India, traditional agricultural market places are characterized by enormous informational asymmetries. Farmers in such places, on many occasions end up with net losses when traders make substantial profits from the same crop. Organised retailing as a new institutional arrangement was expected to enhance the bargaining the power of the small and marginal farmers. Many case studies have been undertaken by many scholars across space and time towards analyzing the status of small and marginal farmers under organized retailing. The prime objectives of this review paper are to: (i) analyse the extent of price realization by farmers under modern and traditional marketing, and (ii) analyse as to whether the retail firms encourage the participation of those who need to be helped to participate. Most of the case studies that have been reviewed in this paper clearly bring out the fact that retail chains largely worked with the large farmers. Studies do reveal that in Gujarat, Reliance Fresh (RF) and Aditya Birla Retail Limited (ABRL) offered higher prices to the farmers compared to the mandi price. In Karnataka, contract farmers in Malur and Belgaum supplying cauliflower and tomato to ABRL realized higher prices in retail chain than in mandis. ITC Choupal Fresh in Punjab and Haryana also provided higher price for the produce. However, with respect to price realization, the small and marginal farmers were discriminated by the retail chains. The studies also provide evidence that contract farming projects at large are located in the agriculturally well developed regions of the country. The retail firms are also found to be procuring only those crops from the farmers that are of export value or that can meet their processing needs. Top |