AgroChain is an exclusive seminar on increasing efficiency in agriculture value chain with focus on post harvest issues on Fruits & Vegetables (F&V). The event is a combination of seminar and expo.
The first edition of the event was organized in Hyderabad in February 2012 in which government officials, cold chain industry experts, agriculture co-operatives, banks and prospective investors participated and discussed various issues related to the topic.
While close to 250 delegates from across India attended the event, over 20 technology companies showcased various technologies available to store & process F & V. Recent developments in India related to post harvest woes among farmers have drawn attention from all stakeholders in agriculture from within the country as well as abroad. Media have been abuzz with various reports related to many unfortunate incidents of huge damage and losses for farmers due to failure of timely and quick harvesting, procurement issues forward linkages as well as remunerative price of the F & V.
Year after year many F&V produces glut the whole space between farm to market resulting in post harvest losses ranging between 30-40%.
It would be inappropriate to state that this situation was unforeseen, since many years discussions and debates have been going on about this "weak link" in the agriculture value chain. It will also be inappropriate to put the entire culpability on the government since these issues need to be collectively addressed and solved by government, private sector companies, agriculture co-operatives, mills & cold storages, post harvest and value chain experts, NGOs & agriculture financial institutions.
Bottlenecks in attracting private investment in this sector needs to be addressed by the government. Unless investment in the sector is made viable, private investors will not be attracted. Lack of continuous power supply, high power costs, low scale of operations, are the biggest challenges faced especially by cold storages. Approval procedures under many schemes are time consuming involving multiple levels. Mere increase in investment of physical structures will not help without proper supply chain and market linkages in place.
