The value of the ‘Trust’ currency in agri-supply chains

It is no secret that agriculture is, today, a key focus of India’s socio-economic fabric. However, these approaches overlook two critical aspects of the way the agricultural ecosystem operates - first, trust as a key currency and second, the entrepreneurial spirit in agri supply chains. While the traditional approach of trust building would be to start with a small transaction and then keep doing repeat transactions with the actors in the system, given that agri is a seasonal business, the number of transactions with farmers would be as few as one or two a year and therefore the trust building process could take longer. So one needs to find engagement points beyond transactions as well as leverage the existing trust credit of other players like non-profits and community based Organisations that have built trust with farmers over many years. The DNA of such an organization needs to be about bringing multiple players in the agri value chain together and enabling them to function at higher efficiencies by harnessing their inherent entrepreneurial energy - and for this, establishing the currency of trust is critical.