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Coconut, a versatile crop with multifaceted uses of its products, hence it is eulogized as “Kalpavriksha” (Tree of Heaven). Coconut is one of the most important commercial crops in many tropical countries and contributes significantly to its economy. India, with the rich biodiversity of coconut, is the largest producer with 33.02 percent share or 22167 million nuts of the world's production. Even though it leads in area, production and productivity, farmers were facing many problems in production and marketing of coconut. Hence a clear understanding on problems from production to marketing with the involvement of various stakeholders (farmers, harvest contractors, commission agents, exporters, processors, wholesalers, retailers) in coconut value chain to help the policy makers for better decision making. Constraints faced by the various stakeholders in coconut production and marketing were elicited and analyzed to find out the significance and priority of the constraints using responses priority index. It was evident that in coconut production, yield decrease due to pest and disease occurrence ranked first with a response priority index value of 2.69. Interventions are required from the state department of agriculture and agricultural university on the management of pests and diseases. In marketing, high fluctuation in coconut prices ranked first with RPI score of 2.39. Daily price fluctuation resulted from an unstable market was the major problem regarding coconut marketing. It is the need of hour to set up an institutional body which would foresee the price movements and availability of coconut and bridges the gap between demand and supply and develop innovative models for upgrading the technology and market information. So, the above suggestions can be generalized to other parts of the country to reap maximum production and systematic marketing of coconut which will surely benefit to coconut growers and also to India’s economy.

Most vegetables are perishable in nature, and in that post harvest losses and distribution channel plays a vital role in price fixation of vegetables, especially in tomato which is sensitive to much environment-genetic interaction disorders which may be manifested during post harvest ripening or post harvest inspection. A substantial quantity of production is subjected to post-harvest losses at various stages of its marketing. The quantum of loss is governed by factors like perishable nature, method of harvesting and packaging, transportation, etc. Tomato being a third most cultivated crop, the post-harvest losses is significant in terms of quantity and economic value. This study undertaken in Coimbatore on tomato has suggested marketing loss in the estimation of marketing margins, price spread and efficiency and has used a modified formula for it. It has been observed that a majority of tomato producers sell their produce to the wholesalers facilitated by commission agents at different stages. The aggregate post-harvest losses from farm gate to consumers in tomato ranges from 13 to 26%. It has indicated the necessity of reducing the market intermediaries, for minimizing post-harvest losses and providing remunerative price to the producers. The results have emphasized that efforts should be made to adopt improved packaging techniques, cushioning material at the farm level. The producer's share in consumer's price as estimated by old method has been found higher and the inclusion of marketing loss in the estimation of marketing margins, price spread and efficiency has indicated that the old estimation method unduly over-states the farmers' net price and profit margins to the market middlemen. It is appropriate to use modified method for the estimation of marketing margins and price spread.

Vegetables are known as the protective food. It has great scope in Indian agriculture due to their short duration, high productivity, nutritional benefits and economic viability. Kerala, one of the South Indian state, produces only about five lakh of tonnes of vegetables out of a total annual requirement of around 25 lakh tonnes which is not enough to feed the population. The state now depends entirely on neighboring states for its food requirements. According to thereport from department of agriculture, Kerala around Rs. 1,000 crore worth of vegetables are imported into Kerala yearly. The reasons for this low production of vegetables is due to less number of farmers, as most of the land is under rice cultivation and plantation rather than vegetables. As a thousand crore business is under the industry, the current supply chain management of vegetables is seems to be inefficient. This may be due to the interference of intermediaries. Due to these problems, both the farmers and consumers are being affected. Supply chain in Kerala is fragmented and involves numerous intermediaries such as distributors and resellers who earn the maximum benefit. Interstate supply chain suffers from many taxes. For smooth functioning supply chain needs professional people but we do not have trained work force in this field. So training and education in supply chain management is required. Supply chain related vegetables in Kerala must be worked upon to increase the efficiency. The present study on supply chain management of vegetables in Kerala helps to understand the various channels in SCM, barriers in SCM, problems and price spread of SCM.