Optimization of farming value chain: scope and viability, actionable areas and model for interventions

Abstract

Rural distress has been the buzzword around which many policy narratives have been created and debated to make way for interventions in the rural sector with mixed results, while we have been able to make considerable progress on some of the economic parameters after independence, we still have to deal with news of farmers’ suicides and starvation deaths that reflect the enormity of the disconnect that exists just under the veneer of information revolution and economic growth; the economic integration of large swathe of population has always been a challenge for a system that fights with its own deficiencies at the ground level. While the prognosis for the economic growth looks gloomy in the aftermath of Covid pandemic, many see a ray of hope in the rural sector to give support to the mainstream economic activities by starting a virtuous cycle with demand creation if agriculture sector succeeds in sustaining itself through this difficult phase. Therefore, there cannot be more opportune times for interventions in the agriculture sector to leverage its potential to reduce poverty and fuel the growth engines of the economy.