Harnessing Indian Agriculture to Global Value Chain

Prospects and Challenges

Saubhik Deb‚ Parthapratim Pal

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 world’s 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.

Parthapratim Pal is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta. He has a PhD in Economics from Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. He has worked in the areas of financial markets and international economics. Before joining IIM, he worked with the Indian Council for Research in International Economic Relations (ICRIER) and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT). His recent areas of interest include international trade, regional trade agreements, WTO-related issues and international capital flows. He has a number of publications in nationally and internationally reputed journals and books.

Niladri Saha is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics, Basirhat College affiliated to the West Bengal State University, Barasat. He completed his MA and MPhil in Economics from the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi with a specialisation in Environmental and Resource Economics and Agriculture. He works mostly using primary field survey based methodology in the domain of Development Economics with a focus on environment, agriculture, employment and gender issues.

Tanu M. Goyal is a Consultant at ICRIER. Her research interests include trade in services, foreign direct investment issues and retail. She has over five years of research experience and has worked on projects for the Government of India, Asian Development Bank (ADB), European Commission (EC), Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), and Italian Trade Commission, among others. She has extensively worked on international agreements and has authored reports providing negotiating strategy for the bilateral agreements being negotiated by the Indian government. She has published several international and national journal articles, book chapters, reports and other popular media articles on policy and trade issues. She has a Masters degree in Economics with specialisation in world economy, from Centre of Trade and Development (CITD), Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

Saubhik Deb is an independent economist. He has a PhD in Economics from Rutgers University, USA and an MA and MPhil from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He has worked as an economist with World Bank at Washington DC. He has also worked as external consultant for ADB and ICRIER. He is currently working in the areas of development economics and open-economy macroeconomics.