Do farmers get low share due to Unfair Trading Practices in Agriculture ?

Food is the primary requirement of human civilization. Food production is also primary employment for the human civilization. Earlier days of human civilization food production was attached to the rehabilitation, cities or villages. After the rapid urbanization food production activity and agriculture became the secondary employment. Most of the food production move out from big cities. The distance between production and consumption gave birth to trading & food processing activities. In the earlier days, there was the direct exchange of agriculture produce between producer and the end consumer. Grading, packing, and delivery activities were at producer (Farmer) end at another side most of food processing activities like cleaning, preservation tasks were day to day domestic activities at buyer end. In this exchange, there was no gap between producer and consumer. 

Now the scenario has changed. The producer has limited himself to food production and the buyer has limited himself to food consumption. In between task like grading, cleaning, packing, processing, preservation, trading, selling is done by the middleman. Producer and consumer have been totally cut. Now the consumer is not aware of the selling price of producer and producer is not aware of buying price of the consumer. Earlier days consumers were totally depended on local production. The producer was totally depended on local consumer. Now people have developed their different taste and they are consuming the food which is produced which is not produced locally. Trading of food activities started with this change and adoption of taste.

With increasing trading activities, food processing activities developed to stabilize the form of produced food. Now it has become full-scale food processing activities. Food production & Food processing activities have become investment-centric activities or industries. With increasing investment, the gap between seling price of producer and buying price of the consumer is increasing slowly and slowly. Nowadays scope food is not a limited to health or taste. The scope of food in increasing slowly and slowly. Now packing, colour, branding, emotion, taste, lifestyle, status, readiness, export, import, health, taste, process of production, type of production, form of produce, delivery, readiness, comfort, shelf-life, quality, grading, shape, packing, colour, and others has become the scope food. Companies are adding different values in food. 

After production and before consumption all the activities are value addition activities. A margin is added at every value addition activity and prices of food produce are keep increasing. Ultimately buyers/end consumers bear and pay all these costs.

Now economists are raising the question that farmers or producer or not getting the fair share of what buyer or consumer is paying. for food produce. By looking the financial condition of producer question is guanine. 70 % world food production comes from small and marginal farmers. In reality buyer not only bear the cost of food, but he also pays for packing, transportation, storage, endorsement, branding, research, interest on, investment, rent of land, cost of post-harvest loss, the inferior performance of employees, manufacturing losses, taxes and duties. 

All these value addition activities provide the employment. If anything is added to increase the farmer’s share will be defiantly reach to buyer or consumer end. Buyer or consumer will have to bear that cost. This is also the duty of Govt that buyer get cheaper food without any unnecessary extra regulatory burden.