Pros and Cons of Assam’s Evolving Agriculture: An Analysis of Storage Needs Based On A Demand-Driven Normative Approach

The study investigates Assam’s agricultural development, focusing on production growth, changing cropping patterns,demand analysis of food groups and the challenges posed by postharvest losses. It explores the potential role that improved postharvest storage infrastructure could address these challenges, making agriculture more commercially viable. The study’s novelty lies in its comprehensive analysis of storage infrastructure as a solution to Assam’s evolving agricultural landscape, an area with limited prior research.Utilizing secondary data and employing various analytical tools the study observedpositive growth of Assam’s agricultural and horticultural production, marked by a shift from traditional food grains to horticultural crops.Simultaneously, consumption requirements for cereals, pulses, vegetables, tubers, and fruits have steadily increased, reflecting the state’s rising consumption requirement across food groups. However, challenges like postharvest crop losses in cereals and vegetables persist.Again, prevelence of hunger, food insecurity, and farmer vulnerability remains significant concern. The study finds while there has been progress in expanding agricultural storage capacity, the state still faces a substantialgap between available storage capacity and the total consumption requirement of food groups. Existing facilities meet only a small share of the demand for food grains, fruits, vegetables, tubers, and spices, highlighting a shortfall in storage capacities relative to the state’s overall dietary demand for food groups.