Underdeveloped Supply Chain Dynamics of Indian Agriculture: Reference to Information Technology and Knowledge Management

Abstract

Agriculture in India is the most important sector for food security and socio-economic development. Agriculture accounted for about 14 per cent of the GDP and employed about 60 per cent of the country’s population. This article tries 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 (IT). This article 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. As proper flow of information across the chain constitutes an integral part, the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in improving supply chain efficiency in agriculture is discussed in detail. Thus, this article broadly covers some of the important aspects of agriculture supply chain in India—identification of issues at different levels in the supply chain; transformation in agriculture due to various supply chain interventions; the role of ICTs in supply chain management (SCM)—and the suggestion to improve efficiency at different levels in the supply chain. There is a wide research gap in this sector; having such potential and prospect for overall growth, not much research has been done in this field. The article concludes that ICT plays a very important role for the development and contemporary issues of agriculture; therefore, the government action must address the issue of infrastructure development to achieve the objective of food security for all.