Agricultural Factor Markets and India’s Small Farmers

Incompleteness and imperfections of the factor markets can inhibit farmers, particularly small farmers, from optimal utilization of resources, which limits the performance of the whole agriculture sector. In small farm agriculture, several important markets handling allocation of vital inputs and services have been emerging. Emerging markets such as the rental markets of farm machinery and equipment have received little attention in literature.

Agricultural Factor Markets and India’s Small Farmers argues that the market efficacy for such critical services requires close examination. The decline of public sector provided extension service in the post Green Revolution period and the entry of private providers makes this especially important. Further, thinness of markets for farm credit, insurance and marketing services deserves incisive analysis, as small farms are often constrained by insufficiency of access to such services.

The book analyses different factor markets to explore their interconnectedness and presents a comprehensive study on the factor market system.