Seminar Title
A Study on Circular Economy Adoption Drivers for Sustainable Agri-Food Supply Chain Management
Seminar Type
Registration Seminar
Department
School of Management
Speaker Name
Pranay Banerjee ( Rollno : 921sm5004)
Speaker Type
Student
Venue
SM-Conference Hall (Room No 302)
Date & Time
04 Oct 2023 11:00 am
Contact
Dr. Kunja Sambashiva Rao
Abstract

With the ever-growing population across the world, there is an unsustainable agri-food supply chain to meet calorie demand for this large population. The current principle of liner economy of &lsquotake-make- dispose&rsquo may not continue in future if the understanding is serious around limited resources around us and the global immediate need for ensuring food security. The supply chain needs to ensure that food wastage across the supply chain not only is being reduced but also reused for any value addition. It has been in very recent times that Agri food industry has improved upon some of the key drivers such as traceability, food loss and waste reduction programs, efficient logistics to ensure food losses are minimal and ultimately leading one step closer to sustainable development. Recently, the circular economy idea has acquired popularity on a global scale, various segments of society including academics, practitioners, policymakers, and industries. The circular economy approach emphasizes adopting principles of reusing, remanufacturing, retrieving, and recycling the materials. From post harvesting to a consumable food, an Agri commodity is being transformed into a food, and during this it undergoes multiple stages of handling and transformations, involving farmer or producers, food processors, transportation and warehousing and ultimately reaching to final consumers through retail. From data and literature, very limited understanding exists as to why the wastages are high and resources are used in an unsustainable way in each step-in supply chain, what are the barriers to execute sustainable practices such as circular economy, while at the same time, there are examples around world to show some examples as to how a sustainable change can benefit an industry and economy. The present study aims to understand how circular economy practices can help each segment of Agri food supply chain including product, packaging, transportation, warehousing, retails and consumer consumption to drive sustainability, and what are the obstacles and challenges in adopting circular economy practices. The study also proposes a model based on advanced tools such as block chain technology, big data analytics to understand how it could moderate between circular economy adoption and sustainable food supply chain. A hypothetical model will be proposed and shall be further validated through structured equation modelling (SEM) approach. The study outcome will help industries, policymakers, and supply chain practitioners in implementing and adopting circular economy practices to drive sustainable Agri food supply chain.