KSUBBARAO, RICE MARKETING SYSTEM AND COMPULSORY LEVIES IN ANDHKA PRADESH-A STUDY IN PUBLIC INTERVENTION IN FOO&GRAIN MARKETING, Allied Publishers, 1978, Rs 50 The general characteristics of fbodgrain trade in India are well known. Marketable surplus is concentrated in the hands of the big farmers but even small farmers have fo sell a part of their grain output at the time of har^t to f^kt tlMly^l^ftl&ediate cash needs although what remains of the output is insufficient to meet their annual consumption needs and hence they have to buy back from the market in the lean season wfien prices are generally higher than at harvest time. In contrast, the larger farmers^ with better storage facilities and easier access to credit, are able to withhold at least a part of their stocks which they sell in the lean season for a price advantage. Thus given the uneven distribution of land, the market ffiechamsm favours the big farmers and works against the interests of the small peasants. But that is not all. Traders aild their intermediaries obtain a stranglehold over the poorer peasants by advancing production and consumption loam which the latter need for survival from one season to ^L the next, while the bigger farmers are relatively free of suhordr nation to the traders. This weakens the bargaining capability of the small peasants vis-a-vis traders and irrespective ot the time of sales they may realise prices lower than what the bi^ fatmers can get. Thus, one can study a regional foodgrain market by analysing the structure of the three classes, namely, small farmers, big farmers and traders and intermediaries, and their inter-relationships in the spheres of both production and exchange* Subbarao studies