What are the main constraints in transport and marketing of agricultural produce in India? (Answer in 150 words)

Efficient transport and marketing determine whether farmers receive remunerative prices and consumers obtain safe produce at reasonable cost.

• Inadequate all-weather rural roads, rail-linked freight capacity, refrigerated transport and rural warehousing.
• High fuel, handling and logistics costs, fragmented supply chains and excessive transit delays.
• Insufficient pack houses, grading centres, cold chains and last-mile connectivity.
• Perishability causes distress sales, especially for fruits, vegetables, fish and dairy.

• Small and scattered marketable surpluses reduce farmers’ bargaining power.
• Dependence on intermediaries, opaque price discovery, high commissions and multiple fees.
• Limited access to regulated markets, assaying, storage receipts, institutional credit and digital platforms.
• Weak farmer-producer organisations and inadequate processing linkages.

Investment in rural logistics, integrated cold chains, storage, grading and multimodal transport should be combined with e-NAM, direct procurement, FPOs, negotiable warehouse receipts, contract safeguards and improved market information.

Keywords: post-harvest losses, cold chain, FPOs, e-NAM, price discovery, rural logistics, distress sale.