"It was a wonderful experience interacting with you and appreciate the way you have planned and executed the whole publication process within the agreed timelines.”
Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
Indian agriculture has been metamorphosizing rapidly for the past few decades. The paradigm shift in agriculture – from a rural livelihood to a contemporary business enterprise – has been often credited to the new agriculture value chain systems. Therefore, micro-level, strategic, crop-specific planning is needed for our agricultural system to integrate agriculture and technology (Agritech), to make farmers prosperous agri-entrepreneurs. The study proposes an innovative perspective to the district planning through an integrated agriculture value chain in the five districts of Uttar Pradesh. The study has also meticulously examined hundreds of policies, schemes, programs, and best practices across the country and recommended the most pertinent of which could be replicated in the given scenario. Based on published, unpublished data and field level interactions with all concerned, the study has also analyzed the infrastructural gaps and dynamics of all the four components of the value chain, i.e., production; storage, transportation and logistics; value addition and processing; marketing and distribution. Furthermore, for the projections and planning of each crop, a plethora of variables have been taken into cognizance and postulated in an Excel sheet for a dynamic and responsive model. Consequently, specific action plans for each of the six crops in five districts have been elaborately drawn for five years. The study also estimates the financial resources required to implement the proposed action points and has suggested avenues for mobilization of the same.
Rakesh Malhotra
Educational qualifications: B.Sc. from Rohilkhand University; M.Sc. (Dairying) from the National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal; Doctor of Philosophy and Doctor of Literature in Public Administration from Lucknow University.
Professional experience: Forty-two years in the development sector through research, capacity building and practice in policy advocacy, project management, governance, livelihoods, vocational skills, financial inclusion, poverty alleviation, gender equality and strengthening of community institutions. He has worked in NABARD for more than twenty-two years. There he was involved in the implementation of poverty alleviation programs, microfinance, strengthening of rural financial institutions, and district planning. He was also the nominee director of a regional rural bank (government bank) at Bareilly (UP). He was engaged in training, research, and consultancy at the Bankers Institute for Rural Development, Lucknow. As the managing director of Rajasthan Mission for Skills and Livelihoods, he was entrusted with implementing livelihood initiatives in Rajasthan with support from GoR and UNDP. As a project director at Rajasthan Grameen Vikas Parishad (RGAVP), he managed the implementation of five projects – RRLP (World Bank), MPOWER (IFAD), NRLM and NRLP (GoI) and MKSP (GoI). He has also worked (through UNDP) for the National Rural Livelihood Mission on thematic issues of social development, institutional building, financial inclusion, and financial literacy. He shouldered important responsibility as the state head of UNDP, Madhya Pradesh, where his primary responsibilities were coordination with the state government on various aspects of planning, policy advocacy, convergence, etc. He extensively worked on SDG and TADP (Aspirational Districts).
