A Perspective on Farmer-Market Interface - Results of a Revisit to Selected Villages from West Bengal, Gujarat and Maharashtra

Markets do not operate in vacuum. They need an institutional structure for them to function competitively and efficiently. This revisit study based on intensive study of eight villages – six from West Bengal and one each from Gujarat and Maharashtra – shows that cooperatives or cooperative like autonomous and democratic organisations are an important tool to perfect the market. With historically determined institutional imperfections given from the past, neither the so-called free market system nor government-initiated process of intervention and development nor even exclusive reliance on the cooperative route can really achieve sustainable growth and equity in the countryside. Cooperatives too need supporting background rules and structures to make them function property. In the absence of the necessary supporting structure, cooperatives tend to be parastatal and inefficient organisations, and hence totally irrelevant organisations in the process of development. There is no short-cut to achieve development. This study therefore favours promoting multiple organisations including NGOs, which can act as competitive check on one another. The country has a lot of bad experiences in development, but at the same time it has enough good experiences too to see and learn from. There is no better way to achieve dissemination of knowledge than providing to out villagers, their leaders and Panchayats a direct exposure to worthwhile experiences.