Farmers in India know how to produce. It is only in marketing their produce whether it is perishables like vegetables or fruits or non-perishables like grains that they face challenges as they do not have marketable lot to sell or do not have the capacity to store in warehouses for lack of warehouses in many cases or for sheer ignorance about how to benefit from appreciation of prices of commodities or as they are in need of money for their next seasons operations and other home needs. Most farmers, mostly small farmers owning 5 ac or less in India all rush to sell their produce immediately at the time of harvest as they either do not have access to warehousing services or because they are financially stretched and have debts to repay. This results in farmers realizing an extremely low price during the harvest season where they sell their produce to traders, who then typically aggregate small lots and warehouse them at commodity consumption centers and gradually sell them over a period of time to realize 20–30% higher prices.
Jha et al. (Thu,) studied this question.