Indigenous Markets in India (A Study in Tribal Areas

This book primarily utilises empirical data to enunciate and reexamine a number of hypotheses formulated in earlier studies on various aspects pertaining to the functioning of indigenous markets in tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh. It throws new light on hitherto less researched areas, especially those related to interlinkages among commodity and credit markets in the tribal economy. This work embodies ten chapters. This book is primarily based on the functioning of tribal economy, an experience gained by the author during his earlier sojourn as a research scholar working on a project on indebtedness among tribal farmers. His interest grew further to examine diverse hypotheses that have been advanced on the interlinkages among various markets in tribal areas. Empirical evidence had been utilized in this study to explore the validity of the earlier hypotheses in respect of tribal and non-tribal farmers separately. A statistical analysis had been undertaken to ascertain the determinants of marketable surplus and marketed surplus as they constitute the parameters for the growth of tribal economy. Micro level findings of marketing pattern in tribal areas and some case studies to bring into prominence the intricacies of marketing of tribal products through a marketing channel like Girijan Co-operative Corporation forms another component of this book. The suggestions offered by the respondents for bringing about an improvement in the functioning of tribal markets have been incorporated. The study indicates the policies to be pursued for non-market access to critical livelihood resources such as land and forests and it recommends a new combination of private and public decision making for enabling market based decentralization, the manner of the design leading to protect the interests of the tribals. 

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