evidence: These events underscore the importance of mandis as physical sites of exchange and trade within India’s broader agricultural marketing system, so I set out to understand the spatial distribution of such spot markets in India. As agriculture falls under the purview of the state government, each state has charted its own agricultural development path; therefore, adopting a spatial lens exposes significant regional variation. The resulting maps not only serve to describe various market features, but elicit more questions about the characteristics of places, the relationships between them, and the underlying stories behind them. Presented here is one particular piece of the narrative; for a deeper dive into the spatial characteristics of mandis in India, look out for the upcoming full report that provides a stronger background on India’s agricultural marketing system and explores additional market attributes across different geographic scales. [...] Even within states, there is substantial variation in the prevalence of mandis, as seen in the market density by district map. One interesting example appears in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh where the delta region (northern coast) has a visibly higher density of markets relative to the southern region. This can be explained by the West Godavari, East Godavari, and Krishna districts, which produce the most rice not only in the state, but in the entire country.