This book makes a bold attempt to answer the question: does agriculture in a market dominated business environment context as in Gujarat depend on Government sponsored efforts or does the individual networking and enterprise of the farmer count? The answer according to the author is that, for the Gujarati farmer the ‘trader’ is all important as a ‘source of information’ and as a buyer of his produce. Though Gujarat has a market based agriculture, incremental sale possibilities and factors like future trading are not very dominant. However, institutional credit sources like banks and cooperative societies are dominant. A regression study done by the author indicates that factors representing developed agriculture have a significant effect on the marketed surplus ratio. While the marketed surplus of farmers by size class depends on the size of the farm, per hectare surplus is not significantly different between small and large farmers but is lower for medium farms. Transport links and location of markets is also important.

Munish Alagh is Senior Fellow of the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) at the Sardar Patel Institute of Economic and Social Research (SPIESR) in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. He has authored more than 10 publications in reputed journals of Economics. He has authored two books on agricultural economics and entrepreneurship, respectively in 2011 and 2015. He has held teaching positions in different institutions in Ahmedabad from 1999 to 2010. He was awarded the Chimanbhai Patel Award for the Best Research Paper among teachers of the Gujarat University in 2004. Dr Alagh holds a doctoral degree from Mumbai University (2007).