Introduction to Agricultural Value Chain

The agriculture value chain concept has been used since the beginning of the millennium, although there is no universally accepted definition for the term. It normally refers to the whole range of goods and services necessary for an agricultural product to move from farm to its final customer. The World Bank’s definition of the term “value chain’’ describes the full range of value adding activities required to bring a product or service through the different phases of production, including procurement of raw materials and other inputs”. This book provides a clear holistic conceptual framework of competitiveness, inclusiveness, sustainability, scalability and access to finance to analyze the efficiency of value chains of high value agricultural commodities. 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. 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.