Innovations in Agricultural Marketing in India: A Case Study of Supermarket in Punjab

Linking small farmers with modern markets such as supermarkets has been identified as one of the several pathways ways to make their farming viable. In this context, the study explores emerging farm–firm linkages in fresh food supermarkets with a case study of Reliance Fresh in Punjab. Specifically, it analyses the impact on the farmers’ income, efficiency and their tendency to diversify to new high-value crops with a sample of 50 farmers each supplying to the supermarket and traditional markets. The supermarket procures vegetables through informal, verbal and non-written contracts from the small and marginal farmers. The supermarkets farmers benefitted on account of higher yield and higher price for the remaining produce sold in the local markets. They were also more efficient in the production of vegetables as compared to their counterparts. The preliminary evidences suggest that these alternative markets can play an active role in agricultural diversification in state like Punjab, which is facing severe agrarian crises. The study suggests that modern markets such as food supermarkets can only be effective if these procure through assured mechanism such as contract farming, besides extending the technical know-how, credit facilities, etc., to the farmers.