| Course Code | AEC 303 |
| Course Title | Agriculture Marketing and Cooperatives |
| Credit Hour | 2(2+0) |
| Full Marks | 50 |
| Theory | 50 |
| Practical | 0 |
OBJECTIVES
Upon the completion of this course, the students will be able to understand the meaning, concept, and importance of agricultural marketing and cooperatives. They will also be able to develop analytical techniques in agricultural marketing research.
Syllabus of Agriculture Marketing and Cooperatives in Bsc. Agriculture
Concept and definition–Market and marketing, the importance of agricultural product prices and marketing of both inputs and outputs. Meaning and concept of utility, consumers behavior, and consumer and market equilibrium, revealed preference, consumer surplus, demand for agricultural products, and their derivation. Supply of agricultural products and their derivation. Price, income, and cross elasticity of demand and supply, the relationship among elasticity and their use. Life cycle and development of products, marketing strategy, market, and product promotions. Market structures, price determination and equilibrium in pure competition, monopoly, and oligopoly; Price discrimination. Marketing functions, marketing channels, and costs. Marketing margins and price spreads. Spatial and temporal price variation. Marketing research, Marketing efficiency, and its measurement, economic models for price analysis. Government intervention and public institutions in marketing, Cooperatives- concept, history, definitions, role, organization, structure, cooperative law, and by-laws, developing agriculture cooperatives, cooperative marketing, cooperative farming, strength, and opportunities.
Course Outline
A. Theory
| S.N | Topic / Chapter Name | No. of Lectures |
| 1 | Agricultural marketing: concepts of market and marketing; nature of agricultural commodities; classification of markets; the importance of product prices and agricultural marketing for socioeconomic progress | 2 |
| 2 | Theory of consumer behavior: the concept of utility and its measuring approaches demand function and factors affecting consumers’ behavior, and market equilibrium; consumers’ and producer surplus | 2 |
| 3 | Elasticity: various elasticity of demand, supply, and their relationship | 2 |
| 4 | Theory of the firm: theory and characteristics of firms; supply function and its derivation; life cycle and development of products; marketing strategy, market, and product promotions | 3 |
| 5 | Market structure and equilibrium: marketable surplus; market structure, price determination, and price discrimination | 4 |
| 6 | Marketing functions and channels: marketing functions: physical, exchange and facilitating functions; marketing channels, marketing cost; marketing margins and price spreads | 3 |
| 7 | Price variation: price movement over time: seasonal and cyclic price variation; spatial price variation; spatial distribution of commodities and regional equilibrium models | 3 |
| 8 | Marketing research: research in agricultural marketing; marketing efficiency and its measurement; | 3 |
| 9 | Government intervention and public institutions: role of government in product pricing and agricultural marketing; public institutions related to production, marketing, and their promotion | 2 |
| 10 | Cooperatives- concept, definitions, history, role, organization, structure, cooperative law, and bylaws, cooperative farming, cooperative marketing. | 4 |
| Total | 30 |
Reference
- Rhodes, V. J. 1983. The agricultural marketing systems. John, Wiley, and Sons, Inc. Singapore.
- Koutsoyiannis, A. K. 1994. Microeconomics, Printice Hall, India
- Barker, J. 1989. Agricultural Marketing. 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. UK Tomek, W. 1984. Agriculture product prices