Value addition and issues of supply chain in marketing of agro-products in North Bengal with special reference to Pineapple, Potato and Tomato (PPT)

An eficient marketing system assists in optimization of resource utilizations, production management, enhance in farm's income, expansion of markets, growth and development of agriculture based enterprise, incorporating local progress via value addition, and employment generation. North Bengal region has significant rain fall and belongs to agro-climate regions viz. (a) hill zone: Darjeeling; (b) Terrain-Teesta alluvial zone: Cooch Behar, Jalpaiguri and Uttar Dinajpur and (c) Gangetic alluvial zone: Dakshin Dinajpur and Malda. North Bengal's appreciable agro-climate regions have made it as one of the foremost producers of enormous agro products in India. The agricultural marketing is largely unorganized in North Bengal. In North Bengal, among the various crops produced, three crops: pineapple, potato and tomato are grown relatively abundantly; livelihood of a large chunk of people as well as trade in agricultural commodities are concentrated with these commodities. The present paper deals with the production, value addition through processing, food security and supply chain management in marketing of agro-products, particularly pineapple, potato and tomato (PPT) in the North Bengal region. It also deals with opportunities of agro-processing and supply chain in marketing of agroproducts in North Bengal. Keeping in view of the present study, details of (a) area and production of agricultural products, (b) food processing industries scenario, (c) available market, and (d) available warehouses and cold storages in the districts of North Bengal have been furnished in the paper. Attempt has been made to cluster the districts of North Bengal on the basis of their production of different fruits through a statistical tool of ‘Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (Dendrogram)’. Since dealing with the production is the prior requirement for dealing with value addition and supply chain in marketing, attempt has been also made to explore the trends of productions for the special referenced agricultural products: pineapple, potato and tomato. For better growth of agricultural based enterprises, advanced technology is required to be implemented. Much more emphasis is required for fishery sector. Finally, it suggests some policy measures to improve the situation.