Role and importance of public private partnerships in agricultural value chain and infrastructure

Abstract

Changing consumer demand preferences, increasing concern for food safety, traceability and assured year-round availability of quality agri produce at reasonable prices at the top of the supply chain has changed agricultural landscape. Agri infrastructure at different levels of agri value chain is key to a vibrant and competitive agriculture and agro industrial sector. Public Private Partnerships could be a useful tool to accelerate development in various areas of agribusiness and infrastructure. The paper discusses the examples of such PPP initiatives in India at various levels of agri value chain such as crop diversification, farmer group formation, marketing Infrastructure, contract farming and provision of agricultural services etc. With government's commitment to investment in agricultural infrastructure and an emerging market for global trade as well as experimentation with new forms of infrastructure-financing and contracting, there are many opportunities to broaden the role of the private sector in infrastructure for agricultural development through PPP models.