Storage, Transport & Marketing in Agriculture

The post-harvest value chain includes harvesting and primary processing; storage and crop protection; processing; and market linkage. As per NITI Ayog, the estimated post-harvest losses in foodgrains hovers around 10%, semi-perishables and commodities like milk, fish, meat, eggs, fruits, and vegetables between 10 to 20%, and the horticultural produce at around 16%. Inefficiencies in the post-harvest value chain

• Inadequate harvesting and primary processing: Lack of awareness, limited finance, and weak markets for primary processed produce restrict small and marginal farmers from adopting primary processing such as threshing, sorting, and grading.
• Lack of storage and crop protection: Small and marginal farmers lack access to suitable on-farm and near-farm storage facilities and packaging materials. Whereas, middlemen invest very little in quality storage and packaging leading to post-harvest losses.
• Lack of near-farm processing facilities: Due to a lack of near-farm processing infrastructure, a considerable quantity of farm produce is lost before it reaches distant processing units through a chain of middlemen.
• Lack of market information: Due to lack of market information, crop selection is based on prevailing prices instead of projected market demand, resulting in oversupply.

Impact on the livelihood of small and marginal farmers :

• Income loss: Crop losses due to inadequate primary processing lead to income loss for farmers.
• Distress sale: Lack of near-farm storage facilities forces farmers to make distress sale thus affecting their profit margins.
• Lack of value addition: The absence of near-farm processing facilities leads to farmers earning lower incomes, as the benefits of value addition mostly accrue to middlemen and large private sector firms.
• Low bargaining power: Poor linkage with markets, limits selling options to mandis and local middlemen resulting in low bargaining power.

Steps Taken by the Government Few major schemes have been introduced by the government to address the problem of losses in the post-harvest value chain and subsequently provide better remuneration to small and marginal farmers for their produce.

• PM Kisan SAMPADA Yojana: It will result in the creation of modern infrastructure with efficient supply chain management from farm gate to retail outlet. In addition to the growth of the food processing sector, it would also help in providing better returns to farmers.
• Production Linked Incentive Scheme for Food Processing Industry (PLISFPI): It aims to support food manufacturing companies to expand their processing capacity and branding abroad to incentivize emergence of strong Indian brands. This in turn will help in ensuring remunerative prices of farm produce and higher income to farmers.
• Private Entrepreneurs Guarantee Scheme: This scheme aims at the construction of storage godowns in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. Out of a sanctioned capacity of 152.74 LMT under the PEG scheme, a storage capacity of 144.67 LMT has been completed as of March 2022.
• Viability Gap Funding Scheme: Capital investment in the creation of modern storage capacity has been made eligible for the Viability Gap Funding scheme of the Finance Ministry. Cold chain and post-harvest storage have been recognized as an infrastructure sub-sector.

Increasing activity in agribusiness from the government, private sector, and civil society organizations is translating into a wide range of interventions towards post-harvest loss reduction and improvement in the livelihoods of small and marginal farmers. Further, effective farmer engagement through models like Farmer Producer Organizations, Self Help Groups, etc. is critical for the success of interventions to address post-harvest losses.