Harsh Wardhan – författare

This book helps readers understand the concepts of marketed and marketable surplus, as well as the role of the government and marketing agencies, including those in the private sector, in improving market efficiency. It also examines the impact of various socioeconomic, technological, institutional, infrastructure, and price factors on the marketed surplus of major crops. While Indian agriculture has become increasingly market-oriented and monetized, the importance of market orientation of agriculture is also being recognized at the international level. The proportion of agricultural production that is marketed by farmers has increased significantly over the last few decades in India: in the early 1950s, about 30–35 per cent of food grains output was marketed, which has now increased to more than 70 per cent. In this context, the marketed surplus is proportionately higher in the case of commercial crops than subsistence crops.

Recognizing its importance, the Government of India initiated a nation-wide survey to estimate marketable surplus and post-harvest losses in the early 1970s, which continued up to the late 1990s. As Indian agriculture, has undergone significant transformation, and no reliable estimates of marketed and marketable surplus are available, the study was conducted to estimate the marketed and marketable surplus of major food crops in leading producing states, and to examine important factors which determine the level of marketed surplus for various categories of farms.

This open access book provides a clear holistic conceptual framework of CISS-F (competitiveness, inclusiveness, sustainability, scalability and access to finance) to analyse the efficiency of value chains of high value agricultural commodities in India. It is based on the understanding that agriculture is an integrated system that connects farming with logistics, processing and marketing. Farmer's welfare being central to any agricultural policy makes it very pertinent to study how a value chain works and can be strengthened further to realize this policy goal. This book adds value to the existing research by studying the value chains end-to-end across a wide spectrum of agricultural commodities with the holistic lens of CISS-F. It is not enough that a value chain is competitive but not inclusive or it is competitive and inclusive but not sustainable. The issue of scalability is very critical to achieve macro gains in terms of greater farmer outreach and sectoral growth. The research undertaken here brings out some very useful insights for policymaking in terms of what needs to be done better to steer the agricultural value chains towards being more competitive, inclusive, sustainable and scalable. The value chain specific research findings help draw very nuanced policy recommendations as well as present a big picture of the future direction of policy making in agriculture.