Identification and Elimination of Gaps for Inclusion of Smallholders in Horticulture Value Chain

The agriculture environment is changing in terms of trade practices, business opportunities and availability of technology. There is also pressure on the farmers to generate more income from reduced landholdings. Alternately, there are opportunities offered through emergence of new integrated high value agricultural commodity chains. Diversification towards higher value crops like fruits and vegetables and rising prices has emerged as dominant sources of growth in agriculture during 1990 (1). However, the participation of farmers is observed to be restricted by limitations likeaccess to market, access to training, poor vertical and horizontal linkages and access to finance (2). Poor information flow along the chain, have also been identified as a vital constraint (5). It is thus important to understand the constraints and find out their probable remedies. The value chain approach generating insight into the limitations and opportunities of the chain (1), may help in suggesting solutions to the constraints limiting farmers ’access to markets and help them integrate with high value chains. With this background, the paper attempts to identify the various components to be covered under the value chain approach for horticultural crops and to identify the constraints faced by formers in integrating with the higher value horticulture value chains and realize better income from same level of land resource. The paper also attempts to provide suitable suggestions to eliminate the gaps identified for enhancing the participation of farmers in the high value chain.