AGRICULTURAL MARKETS FOR THE SMALL AND THE MEDIUM ENTERPRISES

Abstract

In many countries, and virtually every less developed country (LDC), agriculture is the biggest single industry. Agriculture typically employs over fifty percent of the labour force in LDCs with industry and commerce dependence upon it as a source of raw materials and as a market for manufactured goods. Hence many argue that the development of agriculture and the marketing systems, which impinge upon it, are part of the heart of the economic growth process in LDCs. Moreover in LDCs the consumer frequently spends in excess of fifty percent of the household's income on basic foodstuffs - much of which is inadequate both in quality and nutritional content. By contrast, the americans spend approximately twelve percent of their total disposable income on food. In Western Europe the figure ranges from about sixteen to nineteen percent of disposable income. Furthermore, whereas in developed countries the poor are relatively few in number, and therefore it is economically possible to establish special food distribution programmes to meet their needs, the scale of poverty in most LDCs is such that the commercial marketing system must be relied upon to perform the task of food distribution to poor and not-so-poor alike. This being so, it is imperative that the marketing system performs efficiently.