Logo

Indian economy is undergoing structural changes. The share of agriculture and allied activities in GDP has declined over the years. On farm Jobs are diminishing or stagnant. There is a need to generate off farm jobs through secondary and tertiary processing of agriculture (crop, horticulture, animal husbandry, fisheries, forest produce) raw material and these are not increasing to keep pace with the needs, despite potential.

In India more than 75% of agro processing is done by informal and small enterprises. But most informal and small unit suffer from market and technology constraints. Therefore, they cannot go for higher value addition from the main products and from the by-products. These informal and small enterprises are not in a position to create an integrated value chain which can have links with the farmers. As technology is outmoded, these units are not in a position to give quality assurance and meet food safety standards. Their products are marketed only in less demanding nearby local markets.

World over there is transition from informal and small agro-industrial enterprises to large units which are competitive (in terms of price and quality), equitable (not exploiting any member of value chain) and inclusive (treating farmers as strategic business partners rather than adversaries).They use latest and innovative technology, and have national and international markets for selling their products. They enjoy scale economies, are able to comply with national and international standards of quality assurance and go for higher level of value addition. They can forge linkages with the farmers through contract farming and direct procurement and assure their raw material supply by treating the farmers as strategic business partners. But these enterprises require the enabling conditions which make it possible to run the enterprises profitably along with transformation of rural areas. Over the years, the Government of India and nearly all the State Governments have now created most attractive enabling environment. Therefore, in our assessment, India is poised for a great leap in investments in food processing and marketing.

The book contains 18 chapters dealing with the entire project cycle of agro-industries for sustainable rural transformation. The most insightful part is the 12 real life case studies. The book would be useful to agro- entrepreneurs, agro-processing industries, policy-makers, bankers, management consultants, students of agriculture universities/cooperative management /training institutions, and MBA students.