Harnessing Indian Agriculture to Global Value Chain

Indian agriculture is going through some fundamental changes. Over the last few years, increased private and public investments have boosted the growth rate of agriculture. However, in this sector, the level of value addition and extent of processing have still remained very low. Currently, India is going through rapid economic changes and there is a surge in demand for processed and packaged food items. As India is one of the worlds largest producers of fruit and vegetables, it also has the potential of emerging as a big sourcing country for the fast growing global food market. This book looks at the prospects and challenges faced by Indian agriculture in its pursuit to get better integrated with the local and global value chains. The study finds that economic liberalisation and new business practices are ushering some far-reaching changes in Indian agriculture. While on one hand, there is a perceptible increase in corporate involvement in agriculture, on the other there are also efforts to reorganise producers in various forms to integrate them better in more modern forms of agriculture. The government has initiated a number of schemes to improve processing and encourage value addition in the food processing sector. However, many of the erstwhile supply side issues persist. Extension services, R&D services and government procurement systems need major overhaul. A longer-term and sustained policy push is required to make farmers and farming in India viable, sustainable and internationally competitive.