What do you understand by Agriculture Value Chain? How it is different from supply chain for other products? Explain highlighting the importance of an Agricultural Value System Platform.

Value chain refers  to  the  set  of core  activities  and  support functions, internal to  a business entity, to  create and deliver  its goods or services. Value chain optimisation refers to optimising the value capturing activities and the  internal processes/procedures to improve the efficiency of these individual firms.
Supply chain refers to the flow of raw materials or goods from source to point of consumption. Supply chain optimisation means managing and coordinating the chain of custody of the goods from supply side to demand.

An Agricultural  Value  System   Platform  is  required,  to  facilitate  and  guide   the development of modern supply chains that will be cross regional in nature and promote demand based  trade  in  agricultural produce.  Such platform will be  in partnership with think-tanks, industry, academia, donor agencies and government. The agenda will be to promote commercial projects that will  function as  a market  linked system  or an integrated supply chain of agricultural produce. The outcome focus will be to enhance the value captured by farmers to lead to doubling of their income.

Topics: GS-III: Public Distribution System Buffer Stocks and Food Security