The performance of the existing agricultural marketing system in developing countries has been a subject of considerable debate in the past many years.' One of the many issues of this debate concerns the ability of the traditional marketing I)'Stem to adopt new technology and to accommodate any increase in agricultural productivity without leaving "harmful" effects on the consumer or on the farmer. Other things being equal, any agricultural marketing system which enables the farmer to benefit from the adoption of a new farm technology, at least as much as other market participants would do, may be regarded as having performed ''well'' [14