Transforming Agricultural Value Chains in Northeast India: Evidence from Farmer Aggregation, Market Linkage and Logistics Interventions

Abstract

Agricultural value chains in Northeast India face severe structural challenges arising from fragmented production, weak aggregation systems, limited local consumption, high transportation costs, and the deep geographical distance between production clusters and major consumption markets. This study examines the field-level implementation experience of the Livelihood Care Foundation (LCF) in facilitating farmer aggregation and market linkages across major high-value agricultural commodities, including ginger, turmeric, banana, and pineapple. Based on field-level interventions involving more than 1,000 smallholder farmers and over 500 metric tons (MT) of aggregated produce, the study analyses the key constraints affecting market participation and farm-gate price realization. The field intervention demonstrates that sustainable market access is not determined solely by local production capacity. Effective village-level aggregation, the selection of reliable local aggregators, transport logistics availability, stringent quality management, buyer coordination, and market intelligence flow emerge as co-equal components of a functional agricultural value chain. Farmers in remote areas frequently depend on constrained local markets despite the existence of larger, high-value demand centres located more than 2,000 km away. This creates a severe structural mismatch between production locations and consumption markets. The study argues for an integrated Farmer–Aggregator–Transporter–Buyer (FATB) model, supported by digital market information, institutional aggregation, logistics planning, and demand-based production. Such an approach can significantly reduce transaction costs, minimize post-harvest value decay, improve market access, and strengthen the participation of smallholder and women farmers in formal agricultural value chains.