Analysing the challenges in sustainable agricultural supply chain system in India

An effective, sustainable agricultural supply chain system (SASCS) plays an important role in sustaining and stimulating development and growth in the agricultural and food sector. It covers all the activities involved in moving the agricultural produce from the farm to the end user. There are some challenges to this domain, which are constricting its growth in India. The objective of the present investigation is to identify the most crucial problems in the agricultural supply chain system through a literature survey and expert judgements. The explored challenges are modelled using the analytic hierarchy process (AHP). After analysing the factors, the top three identified significant challenges of the hierarchical model are-lack of agricultural supply chain infrastructure (C1), lack of integration among the national agricultural markets (C2) and seasonality of the agricultural produce and long gestation period for the projects of infrastructure (C4). The developed AHP model will guide the decision and policy makers in formulating the appropriate sustainable policies for improving the overall agricultural supply chain performance.