Food Supply Chain Management in Indian Agriculture: Issues, Opportunities and Further Research

This paper is an attempt to explore the problems faced by Indian agriculture for food security in terms of inadequate infrastructure and highly inefficient supply chain in context of information technology. Due to lack of efficient infrastructure and food processing industry about 30-35 percent of all foods produced in India are wasted. This paper examines the critical issues at each sub-system of agriculture supply chain, starting from the input to the consumer, with a view to integrating them in efficient and effective manner. Investments in cold chain infrastructure, applied research in post harvest technologies, installation of food processing plants in various sectors and development of food retailing sector are mandatory for achieving gains in this sector. Paper broadly covers some of important aspects of agriculture supply chain in India- identification of issues at different levels in the supply chain; transformation in the agriculture due to various supply chain interventions; the role of ICTs in supply chain management: and this paper also covers the suggestion to improve efficiency at different levels in supply chain. There is wide research gap in this sector, having such potential and prospectus for overall growth there is not much research in this field. The paper concludes that efficient supply chain plays very important role for development and contemporary issue for agriculture therefore; government action must address the issue of infrastructure development to achieve the objective of food security for all.