14
ranges to remove the crop for sale, and his client is
credited with what he considers to be the purchase price
in part payment of the debt. In the case of food crops,
a quantity sufficient for the farmer and his family is left,
in the case of commercial crops, the whole quantity is
removed. This is true of those areas and those classes
which are comparatively backward. In those areas
where the cultivators have become intelligent and consci-
ous, they arrange to sell their crops direct to the grain
merchants or the ginners in the nearest market town.
We also find instances where several producers get toge-
ther, pool their resources and arrange for the marketing
of their joint produce which gives them an advantage. A
few co-operative societies have been started recently to
enable farmers to effectively join hands for the disposal
of their produce.
In making his purchases of daily necessaries, most of
the cultivators have dealings with the local shopkeepers
who give things on credit. In many cases, the shop-
keeper himself is,a money-lender or has relations with
other money-lenders in neighbouring areas. The price
at which things are thus sold is generally higher than the
price at which they would be given for cash. The begin-
nings of a farmer's debt are made in this way and once
a farmer has got into the clutches of a money-lender,
he finds it difficult to get out of them. It happens frequently
that the farmer has to depend for the disposal of his crops
on the same money-lender, and thus he is doubly hit both
in his selling and in his buying transactions. In brief
we find that the Gujarat cultivator sells his produce cheap
and buys his finance dear.
TRANSPORT
The difficulties in the marketing organisation to which
we have referred are partly due to want of adequate faci-
lities of transport and other modern means of communica-
tions. We find that goods are marketed in Gujarat both
by water and land. Among the harbours in Gujarat may