This issue brings out six papers on various issues associated with agricultural marketing and trading in certain commercial crops such as coffee, turmeric and sericulture and food crop—rice; free trade agreement between Australia and Japan; and institutional financing and determinants of agricultural overdue.

The first paper, “The Implication of Market Access and Production Levels for Coffee Profitability by Smallholder Farmers in Post-Liberalized Marketing, Tanzania” by Agnes Godfrey Mwakaje, tests the hypothesis whether there is significant difference in the input use, costs and coffee profitability by farmers of varied socioeconomic backgrounds based on the level of production and accessibility to District Headquarters (DHQ). This primary study was conducted in Rungwe District, South West Tanzania, by selecting 140 smallholder coffee farmers on a random basis, consultation with the coffee buyers, district authority and the Ministry of Agriculture. Results indicate that the use of input was significantly low by all the farmers under study. After market liberalization, all categories of farmers enjoyed more profits. But, large farmers in easily accessible areas to the DHQ have gained significant profits compared to those in remote areas. This study suggests that improvement in accessibility to input and output markets, increasing the production levels and facilitating farmers’ organizations for marketing, may reduce the marketing costs and enhance profitability of small farmers engaged in coffee production.

In the second paper, “A Study on the Direction of Trade in the Indian Turmeric Exports: Markov Chain Approach”, Murugananthi D, Selvam S, Raveendaran N, and Meena S T express that India is the largest producer, consumer and exporter of turmeric and ranks third in the total export of spices from India. The United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, United States of America, Sri Lanka, Japan, United Kingdom, Iran, and South Africa are the major importers of turmeric from India. This study analyzes how the Indian turmeric exports have been facing challenges from the increasing domestic demand and the competition threat from other competing countries in the world for the period 1996-2006. Results reveal that both the quantity and value of turmeric exports have recorded a positive and significant growth rate. Further, the findings of the study disclose that there is high instability in the export value when compared to export quantity due to fluctuations in the export unit value. The results of Markov chain analysis confirmed that United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh remained as the stable markets for Indian turmeric compared to other markets. The study suggests that appropriate strategy should be used to strengthen the export performance of turmeric in the unstable markets in the world.

In the third Paper, “Potential and Prospects of Sericulture Activities in UP”, Sanjeev Kapoor, Alok Asthana and Abhishek Shukla observe that farmers have been considering sericulture as the positive step towards increasing their income. In order to assess the performance of sericulture industry, primary survey was conducted in the two districts, Bahraich and Shravasti of Uttar Pradesh. The paper measures the performance of sericulture industry in order to develop a proper strategy for its large scale expansion. The results point that farmers are not taking proper care of the plantation and have been facing the scarcity of functional equipment, rearing-house facilities and weak extention support. The authors mainly analyze the economic and technical constraints faced by rural producers who are involved in sericulture activities, which ought to be relaxed for achieving its full potential in contributing to the rural livelihood. Results of this study further proves that additional income can be obtained from sericulture with the provision of technical training and proper follow-up.

In the fourth paper, “The Sensitivity of Agricultural Trade in the Proposed FTA Between Australia and Japan: A Quantitative Assessment”, Mahinda Siriwardana articulates that the Australia-Japan Free Trade Agreement (AUJA-FTA) is already being negotiated by the two governments. The paper analyzes the economic effects of the proposed FTA between the economies of these countries as well as on their trading partners. It uses the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model to simulate the effects of AUJA-FTA. The paper provides some preliminary evidence regarding the welfare impact of the FTA with special reference to the sensitivity of the decision to include agricultural trade into the proposed FTA. The responses of various production sectors to the FTA show the structural changes expected to take place between these countries. The results reveal that the inclusion of agricultural trade into the FTA is essential for Japan to maximize its benefits from the FTA which is more important than the costs. However, the success of this FTA would depend on the manner in which it deals with the problem of agricultural trade between the two countries.

In the fifth paper, “Rice Marketing in Cambodia: The Role of Growers”, Meas Wat Ho explains that the strong emergence of competition in the marketing system of rice has a highly positive impact on the rice growers in Cambodia. The study brings a close link between the growers and other entrepreneurs and a strong demonstrates the various roles that growers can play in the marketing system in order to modernize their agricultural practices and give them an opportunity to build a strong competitive advantage and enable them to standardize the quality of paddy. The contribution of growers to the marketing system and vice versa has a potential to bring sustainable development to the rural economy by giving mutual benefit within the system.

The paper, “Institutional Financing and Determinants of Agricultural Overdue”, by Sharma V K, analyzes the institutional financing for the agriculture sector to identify the factors which are responsible for overdue among the farmers of Himachal Pradesh. The study examines the growth of agriculture credit, recovery position and overdue among the farmers in Himachal Pradesh. The empirical study examines the factors that are affecting the overdue among the farmers in the state. It is inferred from the results that in case of marginal farmers out of seven selected variables, only four variables—amount borrowed, loaning agency, period of loan and repaying capacity—had a significant relationship with the amount of overdue. In case of small farmers, the amount borrowed, loaning agency, period of loan, dependency ratio, repaying capacity and unproductive use of loan had affected the overdue. Based on the results, this study recommends that there is a need for more careful scrutiny of the loan applications by the loaning agencies, appropriate monitoring of credit utilization and conducting ‘Recovery Melas’ to solve the problem of farmers.

- L Krishna Veni
Consulting Editor