Once a farmer has decided what to produce, he or she must decide how to produce it. A wide variety of technology and resources are available for producing crops, livestock and livestock products. For example, if a farmer decides to grow barley, he or she must decide what variety is best suited for that area, how much fertilizer to use, what cropping techniques to use and so on. This decision is also based on what the market or sales potential is. Marketing of a farm product is the goal of agriculture and involves many restrictions, laws, international agreements and so on.
Many factors influence the price of agricultural products.
These include national and international factors. Some examples are world-wide agricultural production, international trade polices such as GATT, wars and environmental situations. Farmers make decisions about how much product to market, when, and how. Marketing has a big impact on the decisions about what to produce and how to produce it. These kinds of circumstances are largely beyond the control of an individual farmer yet farmers must bear the effects of dropping prices and low production.