Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Research in Management and Economics
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Resilience in Rural Agri-Food Supply Chains: Evidence from India and Bangladesh
Sanchita Roy Chowdhury, Manoj Dora
ABSTRACT:
There has been an increase in occurrences of disruptions in recent years due to rapid urbanization, climate change, trade patterns, etc. Under the circumstances, adopting an eco-friendly and resilience-focused agrifood system has become indispensable. Participation of many stakeholders along the supply chain in the agri-food sector and perishability nature of the products make obtaining resiliency more complex and challenging. Multiple studies have been conducted on farmers, but little attention has been paid to the other stakeholders, like the retailers or middlemen in agri-food supply chains (AFSC). We aimed to bridge this gap and investigate the mechanisms that lead to resilience among the retailers of India and Bangladesh. We interviewed 433 retailers from India and 929 retailers from Bangladesh and carried out descriptive analysis, chi-square tests, and developed a logit model for our analysis. It was found that the agri-food retail sector in both countries was primarily male-dominated. Longer duration of association among retailers and suppliers was found to help Indian retailers in managing disruptions and Bangladeshi retailers prepare for them. Keeping a sufficient stock of products helped retailers from both places to be able to manage the adverse impact of disruptions, but, lack of training and availability of credit facilities showed difficulty in preparing and managing disturbances in both countries. Easy information flow did not have any significant impact on the retailers from either country.
keywords: Disruptions; Perishable goods; Retailers; South Asia; Sustainability