Rural Agricultural Marketing Strategies for Improving Marketing within Rural Areas

Around 700 million people, or 70% of India's population, live in 6, 27,000 villages in rural areas. 90% of the rural population is concentrated in villages with a population of less than 2000. Rural marketing is as old as the civilization. Surplus of agro - products are exchanged in earlier days in the barter system. The introduction of currency, transport, and communication has increased the scope of rural market. This paper discusses the present scenario of rural marketing and strategies especially rural produce, and its importance, current trends, and highlights certain problems related to rural marketing. It also deals with how companies moving from urban area to rural areas adopting marketing strategies. Further it highlights the improvements that make the rural marketing system most effective. Rural Markets are defined as those segments of overall market of any economy, which are distinct from the other types of markets like stock market, commodity market. In recent years, rural markets have acquired significance, as the overall growth of the economy has resulted into substantial increase in the purchasing power of the rural communities. Dynamics of rural markets differ from other market types, and similarly rural marketing strategies are also significantly different from the marketing strategies aimed at an urban or industrial consumer. This, along with several other related issues, have been subject matter of intense discussions and debate in countries like India and China and focus of even international symposia organized in these countries.