30 www.extensionjournal.com P-ISSN: 2618-0723 Impact Factor: RJIF 5.1 E-ISSN: 2618-0731 www.extensionjournal.com International Journal of Agriculture Extension and Social Development Volume 3; Issue 1; Jan-Jun 2020; Page No. 30-39 Received: 20-11-2019 Indexed Journal Accepted: 24-12-2019 Peer Reviewed Journal Initiatives in surplus F & V Management: Inclusive and entrepreneurial pathways Ms Poulomi Roy 1 , Professor Mohua Banerjee 2 and Professor Sharmistha Banerjee 3 1 Project Fellow, UKIERI, University of Calcutta (1, Reformatory Street, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. 2 Professor (Marketing), Dean (Placements, Corporate and Alumni Relations), International Management Institute Kolkata, (2/4 C, Judges Ct Rd, Alipore, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. 3 Professor (Department of Business Management), University of Calcutta (1, Reformatory Street, Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Abstract Rational farmers increase production expecting higher profits, but when production exceeds demand, distress sale often results. The abundance of fruit and vegetable production in India gives it the title ‘fruit basket of the world’. This paper focuses on the challenge of perishability of surplus F & V that is multiplied due to suboptimal post-harvest management, inadequate storage and transportation facilities. The goal of the paper is to identify the measures (rather, the lack of them) that can address the aforementioned problem, highlighting the regional variations in good practices of surplus management. The authors focus on the all India data to indicate that states with high production is high but low storage capacity throws open opportunities for specialized intervention in the form of processing businesses. Innovation of new processing technology especially at the farm-level may efficiently utilize a large proportion of underutilized agro-surplus. Keywords: Agro-Surplus, Post-Harvest Management, Cold Chain, Cluster, Food-Processing 1. Introduction Following the law of supply, rational farmers increase production in response to high prices, ultimately leading to excess production that causes prices to fall. This leads to either glut in the market resulting from little or no demand for the produce, or surplus in the form of left-over or unsold produce in the local market, both resulting in distress sale at throwaway prices. This phenomenon seems to be more pronounced in those sectors of agriculture where the perishability is higher, namely fruits and vegetables. The proliferating mismatch between demand and supply is due to a time lag between change in price and change of supply, the seriousness of which is often ignored, resulting in magnified mismatches with every passing cycle in the gamut of agriculture which is heterogeneous in terms of seasonality, perishability, marketability and prices. India is currently referred to as the ‘fruit basket of the world’ due to the magnificent quantities of fruits produced. The country is also a generous producer of vegetables. This paper focuses on the horticultural section of agriculture (Fig 1), including fruits and vegetables (F&V) and excluding floriculture, which is more susceptible to spoilage because of its perishable nature. This sector however is plagued with several obstacles in the forms of lack of skilled labour, insufficient Agri-technology and disorganized post harvest management along with dearth of proper storage and transportation facilities. In this paper, focus is put on the challenge of perishability of surplus F&V that is multiplied due to disorganised post-harvest management along with dearth of proper storage and transportation facilities. The study is developed on the background of the sad truth regarding India’s inability to effectively manage agro- surplus. The challenge of F&V sector is the requirement of crop specific temperature, humidity and gas controlled storage and transport facilities customized according the physiological stage of the crop. Dealing with excess supply of production, India has not gone too far beyond the concept of farm level cold storages, which ultimately leads to a lot of unutilised surplus in the country, amounting to wastage, specifically in case of fruits and vegetables (F & V). Scarily enough, wasting of food percolates deep into the society through opposing problems of death due to malnourishment and obesity, often referred to as the ‘double burden’ of malnutrition, which is beyond the scope of this paper. The motivation for this study lies in the fact that surplus F&V production in India needs to be optimally managed through adequate storage and processing units. Emphasis is laid on alarming levels of nation-wide inadequacy of agro- surplus management and thereafter, deeper research is done to identify the measures (rather, the lack of them) that can address the aforementioned problem. 1.1 Rationale of Study The rationale of the study is inspired from a host of rich literature in the context of F&V storage and processing in India. Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI) Report (1999) [1] talks about how our country leads the world production in bananas, mangoes, potatoes and the like, with only 2% being reserved for processing. This suggests a relatively poor performance in terms of processing compared to the huge potential that the country has in terms of production. The Task Force on Agro Food