THOMPSON RURALMARKET INDEX Dr. Bhupinder P S Chahal this was not considered to be satisfactory approach. They made the first attempt in 1972. However. During the second attempt. They identified 11 factors and assigned a weightage to each other. in this attempt they considered 383 districts. . Hence another attempt was made in the year 1986.Thompson rural market index A successful attempt in the direction of assessing the potential of rural markets has been made by Hindustan Thompson Associates limited. they considered 26 factors for constructing the rural marketing index. since most of the data are available at district level. they collected these data for 334 districts. Hindustan Thompson Associates have developed the ‘Thompson rural market index’ based on 26 variables . agriculture –related data . including area of the concerned district . The index is majorly used in segmentation of the rural market. . demographic pattern occupational pattern . rural electrification data and commercial bank data . Indicators considered for rural market index Area of the district in sq km Demographics ◦ Population ◦ Males ◦ Females ◦ Density per sq km ◦ Number of villages ◦ Percentage distribution of villages ◦ Literate – rural numbers ◦ Percentage of literacy ◦ Literate : males ◦ Literate : females Occupational pattern ◦ Cultivators ◦ Agricultural laborers ◦ Non Agricultural laborers . Indicators considered for rural market index Agricultural related data ◦ Gross cropped area in hectares ◦ Gross irrigated area in hectares ◦ Area under non food crops in hectares ◦ Average size of operational holdings in hectares Agricultural inputs data ◦ Pump sets and tube wells ◦ Fertilizer consumption in metric tonnes ◦ Number of tractors Rural electrification data ◦ Percentage of villages electrified Commercial banks data : ◦ Number of rural branches ◦ Deposits in lakh of rupees ◦ Advances in lakh of rupees . Gross cropped area 3. Pump sets 6. Rural credit 9. Fertilizer consumption 7. 1. Gross irrigated area 4. Following are those variables. Agricultural labourers 2. Area under non-food crops 5.Thompson rural market index After collecting the data. Rural deposit 10. Tractors 8. statistical correlation analysis was conducted with 10 selected variables related to agriculture.Villages Electrified . 9 20 TO 29. of Percentage of Markets A B C D 60 TO 100 40 TO 59.40 86 23.50 54 20.00 .9 Districts Market 22 17.9 30 TO 39.80 39 20. ClassE ofclass Index Range No.Thompson rural market index Based on the statistical analysis the districts have been classified as A B C D and markets. .Thompson rural market index INDEX says that: 40% of the districts have high potential (A&B) 20% of the districts have medium potential (C) 40% of the districts need more time to develop(D&E) This Index can be used for evolving strategies for marketing agricultural inputs and consumable and durable items.