Agricultural Commodity Transportation

Transportation plays a key role for the socio-economic development of a country. The pace economic growth is largely influenced by the efficiency of transportation system as most economic activities are possible only if transport is available to make them so. In agriculture, transportation being an integral part of the production and marketing chain is an indispensable input in the pre-harvest and post-harvest operations. The complex functions of this chain start from carrying various inputs like seeds, farm equipments, labourers, fertilizers, pesticides etc., from the sources of supply to farm yards, assembling the final produce at the central locations of the farm or at the other appropriate nearer places for its further processing, moving the goods to local market or local store within the same village or to the wholesale agricultural assembling market located at another village/town and from there to the godowns and finally to the ultimate consumption places. Poor and inefficient transport facilities hinder both the quality and quantity of agricultural production and limit the marketability of final produce. Apart from the discussion on the principal means of transportation used for agricultural commodities in India, this volume highlights the review of research and literature including studies conducted abroad and in India in this field, rural transportation scene in India, trends in production and marketing, general and transport infrastructural profile of the selected sample villages, inter-market transportation etc. The study concludes with a summary of discussions and suggestions on the various aspects of agricultural commodity transportation.