Corporate Exploitation of Agricultural Trade fairs

Authored by Dharmanand Rao, Rajsekhar, Rajeev Singh, S K Mukhopadhyay
Students of the Post Graduate Programme in Agri-Business Management,
National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE),
Hyderabad – 500 030, Ph:040-4016702,www.manage.gov.in

The concept of Agricultural Trade shows took a leap during the British period in India. Cotton was one of the crop the Britishers were interested in and wanted to develop it, it required the transfer of farming technology to a large number of farmers, and hence Britishers realized the need that in addition to the farm visits by the village level workers and other extension staff, periodic fairs should be arranged within the blocks to expose farmers to a newer Agricultural Technology.

The purpose of organizing trade fairs is to upgrade the quality of rural people through Agricultural development. The Institutes conducting trade fairs include Agricultural Universities, Agricultural Departments, NGO’s, Local Panchayats and other private agencies.

Most managers do not really know the various benefits they can derive from a trade fair, the usual practice of participation in a trade fair is to put a sales staff at the counter of the trade fair for the sole purpose of guarding the stall .Very few managers spend time at the stall to observe farmers behaviour (their customer) to take reliable data for making strategic decisions.

The various managerial decisions that can be taken from a typical conventional trade fair is as follows:

Agricultural trade fairs	Benefits to participating company in the fair
Creates awareness of product or service	Cheap advertising medium
Similar products or services of different companies displayed	Can obtain competitors information or product strategy
Benefits of the product or service known in detail	Opportunity to satisfy customer by providing product information which help adopt pull strategy
Demonstration of technology E.g.: Demo of Combined harvester	Teach correct use and create confidence in farmers
Helps clarify doubts and queries answered	Farmers felt and unfelt needs identified giving scope to develop new products
Identify farmers buying behaviour	Helps sales personnel and channel members to motivate farmers accordingly
Study farmers perceptions	Scope for appropriate product positioning
Farmers expectations known	Aid Product development and improvement
Visit of farmer leaders and opinion leaders	Campaigns can be held with their influence
Large number of farmers gather at one place	Develop farmers database (MIS)
Large number of farmers gather at one place	Cost of reaching farmers representing various locations is reduced
Large number of farmers gather at one place	Opportunity for farmers to meet each other and share knowledge of products; help “word of mouth”. Therefore the company should be more cautious in informing the farmer about his products/ services
Help to identify different use of a product through enquiry	“Lead User Research” at minimum cost
Preferences or priorities of farmers known (e.g. congregation of farmers at one stall)	Can introspect why farmers are attracted to and arrive at decisions
Distribution of samples (free or priced)	Wide geographical reach of the product sample absolutely cheap
Prospective buyers visit the fair (both inland and foreign)	Help in mass purchase and provide opportunity for markets abroad
Awareness to scientists (Experts know-how)	Help recommend products of the company
Help to know farmers attitude or reaction to a product	The company can judge the acceptance of the product (also in different geographic regions)
Impulsive farmers observed	These are the farmers who would like to experiment new products as they are more likely to be innovators and can afford to risk
Technology dissemination	Cost effective means of communication
Opportunity to interact with different farmers	Observations and feedback of farmers recorded for data warehousing and mining
Opportunity for scientists and company interface	Can build credibility and seek advice
Participation in the trade fair	Builds prestige and brand image to the company
Help develop contacts with companies of similar interests	Can identify potential strategic alliances or can adopt cooptetion.
Interaction with farmers about different products by company personnel	Help to obtain information regarding Brand preference
Distributors/ Dealers visit the fair	Opportunity for new distributorship/ Dealership

The above are a few tips, which are not exhaustive to the companies participating in the Agricultural trade fairs. The very basis of a trade fair is to meet the learning needs of the farmers; the activities that follow in a trade fair should be “learner-friendly”.

The promotional material distributed at the fair should be in four or five regional languages for better comprehension of farmers. At the entrance of the fair, a brief presentation in more than two languages should be made to the farmers using audio-visual aids to apprise the farmers/ visitors of the fair and the possible benefits one can gain from his visit.

This helps the farmer to know the range of products and he can decide which he would like to know and spend more time with; the company authorities and scientists should be made available at the fairs to provide consultation to the farmers throughout the day compulsorily.

It is very paining to know that most companies are not aware and able to use the benefits of an Agricultural trade fair to their advantage and to the farmers’ advantage; this has been resulting in the slow pace of development of Indian Agriculture.

In the wake of the coming Food Revolution, it is high time the Government, Agricultural Institutes and the Corporates take appropriate steps to go for Farmer-Oriented approach and provide Farmer-Friendly solutions.

Jai-Kisan Jai-Hind