a.

To provide quality products to the end consumers, it is important that the complete focus of
the growers is towards their crop and are not considered with other logistics or market related
issues. One way to achieve this objective is to bring stability to the Value chain such as assured
produce purchase, and pre-determined prices to the farmers.
PCI Pakistan has achieved such stability in the potato value chain by having contracts with the
farmers in which the produce volume and prices are fixed. Further, PCI is also teaching farmers
to diversify their risks by requiring them to not allocate all the cultivable to one specific crop,
and to plant two potato crops.

b. A Value chain steward is someone who strives to remove the existing inefficiencies within the
chain and add value for all the players involved within the value chain. It is critical to
understand the position of this steward. For instance, in ITC echoupal we saw that ITC was a
processor (an existing player in the chain). Similarly, McDonalds was also involved. But in case
of Samriddhi and Kevlar, we saw that Kaushlendra, and Tahir were entrepreneurs and had no
prior role in the chain. Thus, depending upon the position, the role and activities of this steward
could be different.