Submitted By

Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management, University Road, Pune - 411007

11th Biennial Conference- Agricorp 2017

Theme Paper

“Transforming Agriculture through Investments in

Agriculture Value Chain” November 16 - 17, 2017,

The Gateway Hotel, Ambad, Nashik, Maharashtra

Transforming Agriculture through Investments in Agriculture Value Chain

(Theme Paper)

1. An Introduction

1.1 About Bombay Chamber Of Commerce and Industry (BCCI)

Bombay Chamber Of Commerce and Industry is the oldest operating chamber of commerce in India

serving Indian commercial organizations for the past 181 years. The Chamber has several thousand

members from large, medium and small companies. Members of the Chamber contribute very

significantly to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country. The Managing Committee of the

Chamber includes top professionals from industry, banking, and finance. It has its headquarters in

Mumbai, the commercial capital of India and home to many, if not most, multinationals, banks and

financial institutions in the country, the majority of whom are its members.

1.2 About AGRICROP-2017

The agriculture system in India has undergone rapid transformations over the past few decades

particularly after the economic reforms of the 1990s’. The emergence of integrated agriculture and

food supply value chains are one of the most visible market phenomena in India.

The agri supply chains in India and their management are now evolving to respond to the new

marketing realities thrown by the wave of globalization and other internal changes like the rise in the

level of disposable income of consumers, change in the food basket of the consumers towards high

value products like fruits, vegetables, and animal protein. The new challenges of the agricultural

economy of the country have now spurred the government agencies to go in for different legal

reforms for enabling and inviting private investment in agricultural marketing infrastructure segment

and for removing different entry barriers to promote coordinated supply chain, ensuring better

traceability.

2.0 Status of Post Harvest Technology

In agriculture, post harvest handling is the stage of crop production immediately following harvest,

including cooling, cleaning, sorting and packing. Post harvest treatment largely determines final

quality, whether a crop is sold for fresh consumption, or used as an ingredient in a processed food

product. India stands in second place in fruits vegetables production but when it comes to post harvest

technology we are far behind others countries. The detail of the post harvest loss is given below:

Post-Harvest Loss – More than Rs10,000 Cr each year

Post-Harvest wastage of fruits & vegetables – Rs 50 Cr each year

Losses as above in India is more than consumption of same in UK

Low processing

2.20 % in fruits

• 35 % in milk

• 6 % in poultry

• Very Low Value Addition – 20% (only changing hands)

Low share in world trade of processed foods – India only 1.60 %

3.0 Conference Aims & Objectives:

In the context of emerging era of advanced economy the conference aims & objectives are:

1. To create a robust agriculture value chain with inclusive growth of all actors including

producers.

2. To suggest ways for Increasing Investments in the agriculture value chain

3. To provide a single window for Product Display, Knowledge Sharing & Networking with all

stake holders including Farmers, FPOs', SMEs’, Corporate Companies, Banks & Financial

Institutions and Policy makers-Central & State Govt.

4.0 Agricultural Value Chain

The series of steps and participants involved in the process from production to delivery of a product to

market is called a value chain. A value chain is not identical to a supply chain. It is a set of linked

activities that work to add value to a product; it consists of actors and actions that improve a product

while linking commodity producers to processors and markets. A major subset of value chain

development work is concerned with ways of linking producers to companies, and hence into the

value chains. The main aim of a value chain is to produce value added products or services for a

market, by transforming resources and by the use of infrastructures – within the opportunities and

constraints of its institutional environment.

Fig 1.1: Value Chain Actors, Supporters and Chain Context

The fig 1.1 describes the value chain actors, supporters and chain Context of agricultural value chain.

It encompasses the flow of products, knowledge and information between small land holder farmers

and consumers. They offer the opportunity to capture added value at each stage of the production,

marketing and consumption process. Small land holder farmers need to better engage with value

chains in order to gain added value for improving their livelihoods, whilst reducing their risks and

increasing their resilience.

4.1 Value Chain Level

A systemic view integrates three important levels within a value chain network and allows

discovering potentials and bottlenecks within these levels and in the dynamic interactions between

them. Thereby traditional value chain analysis approaches should be enriched by other concepts and

methodologies such as sub-sector analysis, enabling business environment, cluster development, and

local economic development approaches.

4.2 Actors: Producers, Processors, Wholesalers and Retailers.

A farmer plays an important role in Agri value chain in creation of source for processors to add value

to their produce. When it comes to main actors in agri value chain the initial role is played by

Producers (Farmers). The land holdings in India are highly fragmented, scattered and heterogeneous.

The pressure on limited arable land is increasing with increase in population. This is reflected with

increase in number of land holdings by 83.31% in 35 years from 1970-71 to 2005-06 and decrease in

size of holdings by 46.52% from 2.3 ha to 1.23 ha for the same period. This is clearly reflected in the

shrink of average size of holdings from 1.69 ha in 1985-86 to 1.1 ha in 2010-11 (ICAR, 2011). As per

the predicted estimates of ICAR, (2011) estimated drop in farm holding will be 0.24 ha and more than

95 % of the holdings will be under the category of small and marginal holders in 2050. If this is the

case in coming years it’s highly difficult for value addition to agricultural produce. So here comes

Collectives, Cooperatives and Farmers producer organizations (FPO’s) to play an important role as

value adders.

Cooperatives and producers’ organizations open a new avenue for the smallholder producers by

bridging the gap between productivity and market accessibility through a guaranteed market for

produce and access to machinery and modern technologies equipments. They facilitate various

multiple linkages with institution/organization to spread awareness and strengthen the policies and

procedures to boost productivity and help farmers to adapt changing organizational conditions.

Offering of crop agricultural extension services by cooperatives have positive impact on performance.

Beyond that they often offer social services and building of physical infrastructure in rural areas.

Collectives often out-compete the middlemen on one important dimension, offering more consistent,

reliable and generally higher price to their farmer suppliers than local middlemen through signing

forward purchase contract several months in advance of the harvest to supply products to buyers. But

the major advantage of middleman over the collectives is that they are able to offer cash at the time

of harvest whereas on the other hand, most of collectives lack sufficient working capital and they

pay their suppliers after they ship the product and are paid months later by their buyers.

Solution to this problem is adopting value-chain financing, where Cooperatives can pay their farmer

members or suppliers competitive prices at the time of the harvest strengthening the long-term

viability and fulfilling their contracts with international buyers. The value chain is an innovative and

proven approach for agriculture system which goes beyond the yield productivity and addressing the

issues of harvest, post-harvest, marketing and commercialization. Value chain supports the system by

tailoring and improving efficiency along the harvesting, storage, processing, packaging and shipping

phases as well as in the final uses of food. Now a day’s FPO’s plays major role in Agri value

addition. FPO’s are the important initiatives taken by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation

of the Ministry of Agriculture to mainstream the idea of promoting and strengthening member-based

institutions of farmers.

Farmers Producers Organization is becoming popular concept among farming community because of

its importance. Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs), most of which are Farmer Producer

Companies (FPCs). For example, in April 2013, the Government of India issued a National Policy

and Process Guidelines document on formation of FPOs. This set of Guidelines encouraged State

Governments to provide incentives, including credits for and support of the formation and ongoing

operation of FPOs in various States. Those FPOs which are set up as FPCs enable their members to

access financial and other inputs and services, including appropriate technologies for farming. The

FPCs also organize collection, processing, storage and marketing of their members’ produce in high-

value markets at an optimal price. Here is a case on Maharashtra based FPO Sahyadri Farms,

Sahyadri Farmers Producer Co. Limited was established in the year 2011, at Nashik (Maharashtra,

India). It is a cent percent farmer owned, professionally managed, grower - Producer Company,

operationally sound with best use of technology. It is India's leading manufacturers, wholesalers and

exporters of Frozen Vegetable, Frozen Fruit, etc. It export its products to Germany, USA, Norway,

etc.

Fig 1.2 Value Chain of Sahyadri Farms:

The value chain of Sahyadri farms is described in Fig 1.2. Sahyadri Farms helps in connecting famers

to experts and framers across the world to meet the global quality standards. It imports new patented

varieties across the borders to improve productivity by 20 percent and quality by 80 percent, thereby

reducing the cost of production by 15 to 20 percent.

Fig 1.3 Sustainable Value Chain of Sahyadri Farms:

Sustainable Value chain is been described in the Fig 1.3. Sahyadri Farms aims to make farming

profitable and sustainable by assuring the best possible realization for all farm produce under all

circumstances like new technology, scientific storages, grading packaging, commercial viable logistic

and harvesting of farm produce skill development.

A group of Farmers from Nashik gathered together in huge numbers for setting their targets towards

development and built their own Infrastructure which would be capable to export their produce with

help of financial institute like APEDA. As years passed number of farmers joined the FPO, this made

Shayadri farms to have huge producers’ base organization which in turn results in large amount of

production and they developed Traceability system by Crop-In software, by this Software Farm

managers are able to manage growers/farmers and ensure standing crop quality by keeping close tab

on each growers plot. Also, they can manage their field staff under them and monitor their tasks and

day to day activities. Slowly they started on value addition and processing of their farm produce into

Pulps, Juices & Ketchups. They had started their own retail business, which showed them better

results in terms of profit. This integrated work of All Actors in Agri Value chain by single FPO makes

it as India’s leading farmers’ producer company.

5.0 Major Challenges for Actors in Value Chain

The Major challenges that are faced by three important actors within a value chain network are stated

below:

5.1 At Producers Level:

Small and fragmented plots

Aging workforce and shortage of skilled labor

High input costs, unreliable input quantity and quality

Limited agronomic and management knowledge, over reliance on input suppliers

Few irrigation options at the farm level

Lack of available farming equipment

Lack of proper storage bins and post-harvest storage

5.2 At Processors Level:

Obsolete or unrepaired equipment

Weak enforcement of food quality regulations and little or no quality management or

certification systems

Limited marketing and sales skills or knowledge

Lack of branding and trademarks

5.3 At Wholesalers and retailers Level:

Low impact of wholesale and especially large retail outlets on value chains.

Lack of retail outlet branding

6.0 Supporters Level

The next level of value chain are Supporters like financial institutions, extension services,

consultancies, and transportation service providers act as a backbone for all the actors who are

involved in agri value chain. In India, there are much of fragmented lands and to produce crop in that

small landholding using the machinery, technology is a high cost of cultivation for the farmers.

Therefore, they are unable to produce a better quality produce. Many farmers are unaware about the

quality standards, grading methods, financial services etc. In India agriculture is mainly from rural

areas but the marketing, processing plants are in urban. Even though if a group of farmers decides to

export their produce they are lacking the infrastructural and transportation facilities like roads,

refrigerated trucks, etc. Here comes the role of supporters like financial institutions to provide the

financial services and subsidies, extension services to provide information about the agronomical

practices, quality standards, grading, and consultancies and startups should provide current market

data to the farmer to fetch better prices to producers as well as processors.

6.1 Major Challenges Faced By Supporters Level

The Major challenges that are faced by three important Supporters levels within a value chain network

are stated below:

6.1 Transportation services

Lack of refrigerated trucks

Bad road conditions which contribute to high transportation costs

6.2 Banking and financial services

Limited access to credit due to unreliable collateral and high interest rates

6.3 Information services

Lack of access to current market data

6.4 Extension services

Training for agricultural economists and production economists is inadequate

Little public and private research

6.5 Consulting services

Few qualified technical and management consultants in rural areas

7.0 Financial Services Providers

The Financial Services are provided by the Financial Institutions like NABARD and other

Commercial Banks. The detailed financial assistance provided by NABARD is given section 4.1 and

other commercial bank assistance with startup are provide below:

7.1 NABARD Loan (Warehouse Infrastructure Fund)

During 2014-15 Budget, NABARD was allocated a fund of Rs.5000 Crores for the creation of an

infrastructure relating to the storage of agricultural loans to Public and Private sectors for construction

of warehouses, silos, cold storages and other cold chain infrastructure. Further, the warehouse

infrastructure fund would also be utilized for meeting the growing demand for scientific storage

capacity for agricultural commodities in the entire country, especially in the Eastern, North Eastern

states and food grain deficit States. The eligibility and procedure for obtaining NABARD Loan for

Warehouse and Cold Storage is as below:

Eligibility - loans will be provided for proposals of proposals of projects Involving

5000MT Corporates , private limited companies, individual entrepreneur

PACS, Cooperative marketing societies

Table 1.1: Loans offered by NABARD

Loan amount Rate of interest Repayment period

Private limited company

75% total project cost PLR+Risk premium 7 years

Proprietor 75% of total project

cost PLR+Risk premium 7 Years

Co-operatives 95% of the total

project cost PLR+ Risk premium 7 years

FPO 95% of the total

project cost PLR+ Risk premium 7 years

Government sponsored

95% of the total project cost

PLR+Risk premium 7 years

NABARD Special Fund: NABARD has created a special fund of Rs 2000 crores to make

available affordable credit to agro processing units

7.2 Financial Services by Banks

Apart from NABARD other nationalized banks are extending their financial services for setting up of

infrastructure like cold storages and processing units etc. Below are some nationalized banks that

render financial services:

Table 1.2: Banks Financial Services

S.NO BANKS INFRASTRUCTURE 1. Sampada Scheme Agro Marine Processing 2. State Bank Of India Cold Storage 3. Union Bank Of India Cold Storage 4. Bank Of India Cold Storage 5. Canara Bank Food Processing Unit 6. Vijaya Bank Food Processing Unit

8.0 Agri Startups

Despite being the second largest fruits and vegetables (F&V) producer after China, India hasn’t

developed any significant nationwide value chains in this fresh produce segment. This is unlike in

cereals, where the government, through the Food Corporation of India, has created huge systems of

procurement and distribution. Similar systems, largely private enterprise-based, have emerged in

edible oils and pulses. Even for milk, Amul has shown how this most perishable of all farm produce

can be viably aggregated from millions of small producers and linked to consumers across the

country. There are near about 175 agro processing startups established in different State of the

country.

8.1 Government initiatives supporting Agri startups:

ASPIRE

Government of India is implementing schemes for Agro Startups through ‘A Scheme for

Promotion of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Agro-Industry’ (ASPIRE) scheme under

Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises. (MSMEs). The ASPIRE Scheme fund

has Rs.200 crore corpus.

Start up India scheme

Government of India is implementing schemes for Start-ups, including Agro Start-ups

through Schemes such as ‘Start-up India Scheme’ of Department of Industrial Policy and

Promotion (DIPP).

Support from SIDBI

To set up a network of technology and incubation centres to accelerate entrepreneurship

and promote start-ups for innovation and entrepreneurship in agro-industry.

Loans through MUDRA banks

MUDRA is a financial initiative by Honorable PM Narendra Modi, crated in order to

facilitate the micro units and provide them sufficient funds in order to develop. This is a

scheme to provide loans to small businesses and micro institutions.

Tax exemption for first 3 three years.

Creation of Fund of Funds, which means that government will not directly invest into, but

shall participate in SEBI (Securities Exchange Board of India) registered venture funds.

8.2 Startups in the Robust Value Creation as a Service Provider

1. To prevent Colossal Wastage of Agriculture Produce “billions of dollars” loss to economy

2. To ensure that share of Farmer income in Consumers wallet may increase by at least 20%

3. Demand for MSP regime will fritter away when farmer will get rightful price for the

produce

4. Ensure optimal management of natural resources and mother earth which is being abused.

8.3 Status of Agricultural startups in India:

Startups which focus in the agricultural sectors such as farm technologies, farming methods, seed

production, pesticides, marketing, value added products are classified under Agricultural startups.

Funding for agricultural startups has declined to Rs 5.6 Cr in 2015 from Rs 12.3 Cr the year before,

according to a data from Tracxn, a startup activity tracking platform. In total amount of Rs 600cr

invested in all tech startups less than 1% had attracted by Agri startups.

Some of the agricultural startups in India,

1. Farms n Farmers

2. Stellapps

3. MITRA

4. FlyBird Farm innovation

5. Agro Star

6. VillFarm

9.0 What Others Are Doing In Value Chain?

Gabi and AviNahmias are among the few producers of pomegranate wine in the world. The main

reason for this is that you can’t make wine with pomegranate juice. The first step in all winemaking is

adding yeast to grape juice. This starts the process of fermentation, in which sugars are broken down

into alcohol and carbon dioxide. Because pomegranates have a much lower concentration of sugar

than wine grapes, they cannot be effectively fermented.

The Nahmias brothers, whose family grew pomegranates and grapes in Morocco for generations,

knew that pomegranates would need a sugar concentration level of between 22 and 26 degrees Brix to

be used in winemaking. They also knew that pomegranates only have a sugar concentration level of

12 to 16 degrees Brix.Despite having no formal background in agricultural science, the Nahmias

brothers ambitiously set out to close this gap. Working on their land in the Upper Galilee agricultural

cooperative of Kerem Ben Zimra, they developed a new strain of pomegranate using crossbreeding.

The resulting fruit was sweet enough for wine production and more than twice as big as a typical

pomegranate – 1.4 to 1.7 kilograms as opposed to 400 to 800 grams.

This breakthrough occurred 14 years ago. Using the new fruit, the brothers developed a secret recipe

for pomegranate wine, which they use to this day. By 2004, they were producing NIS 225,000 worth

of the elixir at their Rimon Winery annually. Last year, the brothers say they produced 550,000 bottles

of their pomegranate wine, with a retail value of NIS 44 million."The beginning was modest," says

AviNahmias. "We produced a barrel of wine and several dozen bottles that we gave out to friends and

family to get their opinions, and their feedback was excellent. Pretty soon we were producing three

varieties of wine, and now we've reached eight varieties."The brothers’ pomegranate orchard is

located 900 meters above sea level and spans 150 dunams (37 acres). Like the grapes grown nearby,

the pomegranates produced in this environment are well suited for the production of high-quality

wine.

The brothers harvest the pomegranates with specially designed equipment, which precisely separates

the juice-holding seeds of the fruit from its bitter-tasting outer and inner peels. These are set aside to

be used as cattle feed. After the picking and sorting, the seeds are fed into a juicer, which squeezes the

sweet red juice into stainless steel vats for fermentation.

The fermentation process takes much longer and is done at a lower temperature than with grape juice.

This preserves the healthy ingredients in pomegranate juice, which would be entirely lost in a faster or

hotter process. After fermentation, the pomegranate wine is transferred into French oak barrels for

aging, much like grape wine. The white pomegranate seeds that remain after the juice is squeezed are

placed in a cold press to produce pomegranate oil, which is used as a food additive and helps reduce

blood pressure in those suffering from heart disease or atherosclerosis. It also helps maintain balanced

insulin levels in diabetes.

Israel hosts 22,000 dunams (5,436 acres) of pomegranate orchards. Last season these orchards met the

local market’s demand for pomegranates and produced another 42 tons that was shipped overseas for

use in juices, jams, concentrates and food additives.

Some of the many orchards that were planted in the past few years are still young and have yet to bear

fruit. Nevertheless, the market created a large surplus of pomegranates in 2011, which is expected

grow in the coming years.

The glut of pomegranates in Israel is due to a rapid expansion of orchards following recent worldwide

publicity about the fruit’s health benefits. Despite the surplus, the price of pomegranates remains high

at Israeli retail chains. During the fall's harvest season, farmers receive between Nis 1.50 and NIS 2

per kilogram at the market, but the price for consumers at the major retail chains lies somewhere

between NIS 8 and NIS 10 per kilogram.

Almost any kind of wine can be made from pomegranates, including sparkling wines. The Nahmias

brothers' Rimon Winery produces both dry and sweet wines. Pomegranate wine is roughly 100 to 200

percent more expensive than similar grape wine varieties. A bottle of premium pomegranate port (750

milliliters, 18 percent alcohol) costs NIS 99 at most specialty wine shops, compared to NIS 33 for port

made from grapes.

According to Gary Yefet, who owns a wine shop in Tel Aviv, there is a similar price disparity in dry

wines. But he says the taste and aroma of pomegranate wines make them worth splurging for.

Fig 1.3: Pomegranate production scenario in Maharashtra: -

In the Upper Galilee, the Judean foothills and Israel's coastal plain, several wineries have recently

popped up to compete with the Nahmias brothers in pomegranate wine production. Their products are

mostly sold in specialty wine shops. As their collective annual output increases, the price of

pomegranate wine is expected to drop, and the bottles should start showing up in major Israeli retail

chains. But the real future of Israel's pomegranate wineries, like most Israeli agriculture, lies in

66%

19%

8%

4% 2% 1%

Leading Growing state of Pomegranate in India

Maharashtra Karnataka Gujarat Andhra Pradesh Tamil Nadu Others

exports. The Rimon Winery exports approximately 60 percent of its wines to Europe and the United

States, where clients purchase as much as they can produce.

Maharashtra is the leading producer of pomegranate followed by Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat

and Tamil Nadu. Ganesh, Bhagwa, Ruby, Arakta and Mridula are the different varieties of

pomegranates produced in Maharashtra. In India, pomegranate is commercially cultivated in Solapur,

Sangli, Nasik, Ahmednagar, Pune, Dhule, Aurangabad, Satara, Osmanabad and Latur districts of

Maharashtra; Bijapur, Belgaum and Bagalkot districts of Karnataka and to a smaller extent in Gujarat,

Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

Note: More Case related to Agri Value Chain is in ANNEXURE - I

10. Conclusion:

The general lessons learned from all the cases discussed in the previous sections and in annexure are

that the small holder producers could be a viable part of the value chains if there is a proper

identification of the actors their strength and weakness etc. could be mapped properly. This should be

coupled with the proper institution building and tailor made financial products and services made

available to support the growth and development of the value chain.

In general, the smallholder producers have inadequate resources for investments and the farmer

collective models plays very important role for acces singfinance, technology and markets. As the

requirements of the smallholders are small, the financial institutions are not very keen for direct

investment, the producers driven business model could be successfully implemented to manage the

risk and cost of individual finance. The role of the other value chain actors should not be undermined

and they should be encouraged to engage with the small holder producer in an ethical business

partnership.

10.1 Future Directions

Value Chain Finance in Agriculture is frequently on top of the international development agenda

since last few years. Now, with the triple shocks of the recent years food, fuel, and finance the

urgency of food and nutrition security has increased greatly and created political pressure to act

immediately. There is now broad support for more and better investments to increase agricultural

production, to improve marketing of commodities, and to combat poverty. We require to move on to

innovative and market-based approaches that are scalable and can reach a large number of

beneficiaries and could serve all the actors in the value chain. The Emerging Areas/Avenues in

Investment Credit in Agriculture and Allied Activities:

1. Pre-Production

2. Production

3. Processing

4. Agri- Infrastructure

5. Trade and Others

10.2 What Agri Value chain should adopt?

1. Adopt large number of domestic customer bases

2. New post harvest technologies to prevent food losses.

3. New cooling systems and temperature control

4. Time temperature indicator (TTI) Technology

5. Ethylene controlling technologies.

6. Nanotechnologies

7. Biodegradable and fully compostable bio plastics

ANNEXURE -I

A CASE RELATED TO AGRI VALUE CHAIN.

Growth and development of agricultural value chains for local and external markets can be

considered as a powerful tool for poverty reduction and to fight against the challenge of food

security in developing countries like India. This particularly makes a strong case in India where

farmers are able to produce agricultural products, such as fresh fruits and vegetables that have

higher potential for value addition as compared to conventional crops, and if access is made

available to processing, marketing and distribution, which could enhance the value of the final

product.

The terms value chain and supply chain are often inter-changed (Food and Agricultural

Organization 2005). According to Dunn (2014) an agriculture value chain can be a vertical

linking or a network between various independent business organizations and can involve

processing, packaging, storage, transport and distribution. In South Asian countries, such as India,

agricultural value chains are often fragmented; lack investment; and fail to include vulnerable

groups and are missing critical linkages of farms and markets.

Case of PRAN

The PRAN (Programme for Rural Advancement Nationally) group started in 1981 in Bangladesh.

It has now become Bangladesh’s largest grower and processor of fruits, beverages and vegetables.

Other than Bangladesh it supplies processed products of fruits and vegetables to more than 75

countries, including India. The PRAN group has also set up a processing plant in Tripura state of

India.

The Tripura government has allotted land to the PRAN group in Bodhjungnagar to set up the unit,

where already 500 people, mostly local residents and women, have been employed. It is expected

to reach 1,000 workers by 2017 after the expansion of the unit. The group is also setting a

processing unit at Kalyani in West Bengal’s Nadia district. It also plans to set up units in Odisha

and Siliguri in West Bengal to receive other agricultural products from North Eastern parts of

India.

Conclusion

By studying these cases we can conclude that PRAN have both positive and negative traits. The

reach of PRAN is strong and wider. But PRAN have failed in sharing the benefits and profits

equally with their farmers, this need to be corrected as the long-term objective of these agri-

business models should be connecting the farmers to the market and provide the equal share of

benefits to them.

Despite these drawbacks, the model demonstrate that agri-business models can work in

Maharashtra too and have potential to connect small and marginal farmers to the market and

export community. Need of the hour is to develop national and regional-level policy framework to

support the private companies and business houses to design innovative ideas to develop the

agriculture value chains in India and link the farmers to the market and wider export community.

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