eChapters

Soil is made up of minerals, organic matter, gases, liquids and micro-organisms in different proportions. It provides anchorage to plants. It is important for life as it provides the medium for the growth of a plant, habitat for several insects and other organisms. Soil is a store house of nutrients, micro-organisms, air and water. It is the source of four essential ‘living’ factors including food, clothes, shelter, and medicines.

Agriculture is a fundamental human activity that depends intrinsically on natural processes, including soil fertility, water recycling, and pollination, and both nature and agriculture are increasingly suffering the negative impacts of climate change (EEA, 2019). At the same time, unsustainable agriculture also poses a major threat to biodiversity (Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity, 2014), negatively affects the state of our soil and water, and is an important contributor to climate change (Jia et al., 2019).

Climate change is a long-lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather pattern triggered by greenhouse gas (GHG) emission. It is caused by natural factors like continental drift, volcanoes, earth’s tilt, and ocean current or manmade factors like urbanization, industrialization, burning of fossil fuel, deforestation and faulty agricultural practices.

Conservation Agriculture Conservation agriculture is an approach to managing agro-ecosystems, for improved and sustained productivity, increased profits and food security while preserving and enhancing the resource base and the environment. It is a set of technologies, including minimum disturbance, permanent soil cover, diversified crop rotations, and integrated weed management (Reicosky and Saxena, 2007; Hobbs et al., 2008, Friedrich et al., 2012).

Food security is achieved when adequate food is available and accessible and satisfactorily used and utilized by all individuals to live a healthy and active life. But food and nutrition security is achieved when people have physical, economic and social access to food of sufficient quantity in terms of variety, diversity, nutrient content and safety to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy and active life coupled with sanitary environment, adequate health and education care. In order to achieve food and nutrition security there is a need for transitioning toward nutrition sensitive food system.

Natural resources are naturally occurring resources which can be exploited for economic gain. They include raw materials such as fuels, minerals and metals, soil, water, air, sunlight, land, biomass and ecosystems. Natural resources also include living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) materials. Natural resources are gifts of nature for the humankind.

Farming system is a complex inter-related matrix of soil, plants, animals, implements, power, labour, capital and other inputs controlled in part by farm families and influenced by varying degrees of political, economic, institutional and social forces that operate at many levels. In farming system there is integration of farm enterprises such as cropping systems, animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry, sericulture, poultry etc.

Insects and mites that damage crops, pathogens that cause diseases in plants, weeds that compete with field crops for nutrients and water, plants that choke irrigation channels or drainage systems, rodents that eat young plants and grain, and birds that eat seedlings or stored foodstuffs are all crop pests. As plants were domesticated and grown, increasingly in monoculture, the potential damage caused by their co-evolved pests and disease pathogens were realised.

Alternative agriculture is a production system that follows the concept of agroecology and does not use conventional methods. Natural farming, Bio-dynamic farming, Organic farming, Permaculture, Homa farming and many others are considered as alternative agriculture. In spite of some differences, these practices aim at preserving the environment and minimise the use or avoid synthetic agrochemicals. They rely on natural cycles, by using crop rotations, cover crops or no-tillage, etc.

Modern farming system was aimed to maximise crop production by use of high yielding crop varieties or hybrids and application of agro-chemicals like fertilisers and pesticides along with irrigation and better crop production technologies. But without consideration of its impact on the environment and economics of the farmers, the monoculture of rice and wheat with agro-chemicals caused land degradation, soil and water contamination, gene erosion and environmental pollution.

Agriculture depends mainly on natural resources like land situation, soil, water and a favourable climate. Continuous agricultural practices adopted without conservation of such precious resources may lead to unsustainability of growth in agriculture. Conservation of these resources and their sustainable use with appropriate measures would be required for a sustainable agriculture.

The market research process is equally critical to rural marketing as to urban marketing because of two main reasons:

• The marketer has a limited understanding of the rural/urban consumer
• The marketer who is urban-oriented may need to find different ways to understand the decision variables in the urban market.

The communication which is the core of the Communication Mix plays an important role in promoting the product to the outside world and especially to the target market. In the marketing of rural products, application of latest, innovative and enhanced technologies is crucial for effective communication with urban consumers. This also helps in conveying the features of rural products. The adoption of the latest technologies ensures the economic well-being of the rural marketers by increasing the reach of the products and in creating awareness about the product. The technology helps in faster dissemination of the rural product information to the consumer.

There are many distribution networks which an organization may use depending upon the nature and usage of the product. Generally, there are two types of distribution networks which are being widely used the first is direct selling to the customer and the second is to have intermediaries in between which ensures that the product is available to the final consumer. In this indirect method the company is not in direct touch with the customer and this gap is filled by the middleman. The middleman not only provides the product to the customer but he also provides continuous feedback to the organization about the product and market demands. 

A marketing strategy of a business is the game plan of an organization for approaching its target market effectively. Marketing strategy is also used to target the prospective customer and converting them into loyal consumers for the brand and services being offered by the companies.

A marketing strategy is the building block of a marketing plan and consists of the value which the company wants to offer, its key message which the company wants to convey to the target market and other elements which are key in the area of marketing.

India is known for its heritage and diaspora has 6,40,867 villages with a population of aprox 120 crore people which is about 66.46 % of the population. The villages in India have always remained neglected and never tried to market their products to urban consumers. But the rise in incomes of the Indian urban consumers and the increased awareness due to technological advancement it leads to the growth of the Indian consumer market which became attractive for the Indian as well as foreign companies. The efforts by Indian Government for rural products contributed to the development of rural products and their marketing. 

Agriculture marketing and Rural marketing are two words used interchangeably by the people at large with the study of agriculture and management discipline. India is known to the world for its agricultural growth through the green revolution. India is an agriculture-based and oriented economy with approximately six and a half lakh villages predominantly involved in agricultural and agri-based activities. Rural India is termed as the backbone of the Indian economy and it contributes significantly to the economy and to its GDP (Gross Domestic Product) in terms of providing food grains (Cereals and Pulses), vegetables, and fruits which are essential ingredients for human life.

Cloud-based software is used for the management of financial and field activities of farms. Prior to computers, farmers maintained data manually by keeping lengthy records on papers. This method was prone to human calculation errors. After the computer boom in the 1980s, it was not long before finance software such as Money Counts came to market. 

Smart Farming is a hi-tech and effective system of doing agriculture and growing food in a sustainable way. It is an application of implementing connected devices and innovative technologies together into agriculture. Smart Farming majorly depends on IoT thus eliminating the need of physical work of farmers and growers and thus increasing the productivity in every possible manner.

With the recent agriculture trends dependent on agriculture, Internet of Things has brought huge benefits like efficient use of water, optimization of inputs and many more. 

Since the industrial revolution in the 1800s, automation got more advanced to efficiently handle sophisticated tasks and increase production. With increasing demands and shortage of labor across the globe, agriculture robots or commonly known as Agribots are starting to gain attention among farmers. Crop production decreased by an estimated 213 crores approx ($3.1 billion) a year due to labor shortages in the USA alone. Recent advancements in sensors and AI technology that lets machines train on their surroundings have made agrobots more notable. We are still in the early stages of an ag-robotics revolution, harnessing the full potential of the Internet of Things in agriculture, with most of the products still in early trial phases and R&D mode.