About the Conclave

The Agribusiness conclave provides a unique platform to bring together policy makers, researchers, industrial leaders/practitioners and students to discuss on issues, challenges and way forward on Agribusiness and food processing sector in India. The conclave gives a golden opportunity to inquisitive minds to interact with and get inspired by the leaders.

Theme-1

Doubling Farmers’ Income: Role of Agri Inputs

Past strategy for development of the agriculture sector in India has focused primarily on raising agricultural output and improving food security. The net result has been a significant increase in per capita food production, which has made India not only food self-sufficient at aggregate level,
but also a net food exporting country. The strategy did not explicitly recognise the need to raise farmers’ income. The net result has been that farmers‘ income remained low, which is evident from the incidence of poverty among farm households.

It is apparent that income earned by a farmer from agriculture is crucial to address agrarian distress and promote farmers welfare. In this background, the goal set to double farmers’ income by 2022 is central to promote farmers welfare, reduce agrarian distress and bring parity between income of farmers and those working in non-agricultural professions. With this background, the conclave will have discourse on the role of agri inputs in doubling farmers’ income.

The following important questions need special attention:

  • What are the technological breakthroughs for shifting production frontiers and raising efficiency in use of inputs?
  • How the different dimensions of agri inputs (quality, affordability and availability) will address the farmer’s income issue?
  • What are the challenges and way forward on use of agri inputs ensuring sustainable development as well as higher income for the farmers?

Theme-2

Effective supply chain management for deriving value to food processing industry

Food processing is an important link between agriculture sector and the consumers. Importance of logistics and supply chain management is increasing at the global level especially in food processing industry.

The supply chain management in food processing focuses on a range of elements such as supply chain management as a separate functional area, use of information and Communication technology (ICT) and use of cold chain facilities.

Supply chain management is still in its infancy in food processing sector in India. There is considerable scope for improving supply chain management practices especially in the context of deriving value to food processing industry. With this background, the conclave will have discourse on effective supply chain management for deriving value to food processing industry

The following important questions need special attention:

  • What are the supply chain constraints faced by India’s food processing sector and the way forward to address them:
  • What are the various innovations in supply chain which can be adopted in India’s food processing sector?
  • What are the challenges and way forward on regulatory issues pertaining to food safety in the supply chain?
  • What are the challenges and way forward on supply chain sustainability which covers environmental, social and legal issues?