Incorporating Marketing Component in Strategic Research Extension Plan (SREP) of a District

Abstract

The Strategic Research and Extension Plan (SREP) is a vital document
prepared at the Agricultural Technology Management Agency (ATMA) level
for identifying research and extension gaps. In the first phase of the
preparation of SREPs, the marketing component could not be incorporated due
to different systemic reasons. Hence, MANAGE has taken up action research
in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh to incorporate the marketing
component in the SREP of the District. Based on research experience and
interaction with field functionaries, the fundamental steps for incorporation of
marketing components in SREP have been arrived at. The components of the
marketing aspects of Agriculture produce, from the viewpoint of preparation of
SREP, can broadly be classified as infrastructure (hardware) and different
marketing practices (software) such as• direct marketing, group marketing,
contract farming, processing and value addition, spot marketing, futures
marketing, retail chain linkage, support price mechanism, export marketing
etc. There is a need for a plan for each of these marketing components at the
district level. The basic formats for development of SREP for marketing
components have also been developed in consultation with the field officers.
This paper focuses on these aspects with a hope that this would help ATMAs
across the country. Considering that all the states have already started
revisiting their SREPs, the results of this ongoing action research are expected
to provide some timely inputs to incorporate the agricultural marketing
components in terms of both hardware and software aspects.