Market orientation and perceived risk among smallholder farmers in Kamrup district of Assam in North Eastern India

Abstract This study examines how smallholder farmers in Kamrup district, Assam (North-Eastern India), orient themselves toward markets and what risks they associate with doing so. Primary survey data were collected from 300 farming households across eight villages in the Hajo and Sualkuchi development blocks. Market orientation was assessed across four dimensions, namely responsiveness to customer needs, quality product orientation, demand-driven cropping, and advance supply arrangements, alongside six perceived risk categories: production, personal, financial and credit, technology, institutional, and price risk. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, independent samples t-tests, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson's correlation. Quality orientation (t = − 3.98, p < 0.001) and the composite market orientation score (t = − 2.91, p = 0.004) differed significantly between blocks. Marketing behaviour also diverged, as 42.0% of Sualkuchi farmers sold immediately after harvest versus 23.3% in Hajo (p < 0.001). Production risk was cited most frequently (43.0%), followed by personal risk (36.7%) and financial risk (34.7%). Market orientation differed across farmer categories (F = 3.57, p = 0.030) but showed no correlation with household income (r = − 0.017, p = 0.768), suggesting that structural barriers such as inadequate storage, intermediary dependence, and very small holdings block the orientation-to-income pathway. Findings inform block-level marketing policy, post-harvest infrastructure planning, and risk management. The results also extend the agripreneurship literature by showing that, under weak market institutions, smallholder portfolio entrepreneurship is necessity-driven and decoupled from market orientation.