| |November 201919POST HARVEST DISTRIBUTION CHANNEL: AN UNRESOLVED AND AILING ISSUEIf one looks up the definition of "fresh", what comes up is "just produced". Imagine a just produced spinach's journey - traveling from the small hectares of nondescript farms to the hustle-bustle of a city's market, huffing and puffing all the way over many days, exchanged between multiple wry hands, haggled over incrementally and finally, the exhausted spinach gets consumed; purchased at a price over 10 times the original value. More often than not, the same spinach would not even make it to a kitchen and gets discarded somewhere along this long journey.Agri supply chain: the forgotten step childThe Green Revolution changed India. India witnessed increased production because of enhanced cultivation methods and irrigation systems. While there has been a drastic improvement in the yield per acre, an unresolved and ailing issue that remains is the post harvest distribution channel. A 2011 UN study shows that close to 45% of fresh produce gets wasted in developing nations like India. Not only does this hurt the farmer but also the consumers as the quality deteriorates and prices increase exponentially. Inadequate storage facilities and the lack of market linkages hurt the farmers at the first mile and the wastage gets compounded during distribution. Startups and corporations have been hard-pressed to solve this problem despite the tremendous opportunity primarily due to the multitude of policy challenges and regulations to operate any sort of business in the hinterlands. Add to that, a poor credit system and an ineffective formal banking model that hampers most entrepreneurs. Structurally, there are a lot of reforms and investments needed to uplift this sector. Unfortunately the farm-to-fork model continues to be a pipe-dream.Organized retail: the panaceaOrganized retail in developed nations accounts for over 60% of food retailing. The overall wastage is lower than 10% which still makes it more efficient over the unorganized sector. A well-defined and systematic supply chain infrastructure can orchestrate the fine line between meeting the demands of the farmers and benefiting consumers and retailers. The farmers in such a setup · Have access to trained agronomists to optimize the quality of produce· Follow a predictable pattern of harvesting cycles based on market demand· Maximize yieldBy Tejas Vyas, Director of Products, Bigbasket.comITejas Vyas, Director of Products CXO INSIGHTS
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