Areca nut is one of the important plantation crops in the Garo hills of Meghalaya. On the one hand, it is consumed on a large scale in the state; and on the other hand, it is sent outside the state to various processing factories. However, farmers are of the view that their due share from the marketing of areca nut is not reaching them because of which they are losing their interest in this crop. In the light of these concerns, an attempt is made in this paper to examine the product flow and information flow dimensions of areca nut supply chains in the Garo hills of Meghalaya. The study finds seven supply chains of areca nut in Garo hills of Meghalaya. The producer’s share in the consumer’s rupee was found to be very low in some channels, with the lowest being 25.09%. The marketing efficiency was also very low in a few cases, with the lowest being 0.33%. The information flow was also not very satisfactory in these supply chains. The study finds that both farmers and itinerant village traders were not satisfied with the information they get from their partners. There is a need for transparency across the entire supply chain of areca nut. This is possible by developing a system which allows timely and accurate information flow (mostly regarding markets, prices, etc.), so that these traditional supply chains can be converted into modern improved supply chains where every player works for mutual benefit.

Areca nut is an important commercial plantation crop in India with a long history of consumption in various forms. It is also abundantly grown in Garo hills of Meghalaya either in small homestead gardens (as mixed crop with banana, lemon, etc.) or on large orchards (as pure crop). In this region, it is consumed as raw nuts and preserved unhusked nuts (mostly for local consumption) and dried supari (for outside state). However, the main product form from this region is boiled red supari which is processed from tender raw nuts (mostly from the processing factories situated outside the state).

Though there are not many researches showing the dynamics of supply chain in the region, insights can be drawn from researches done in other parts of the country. Sivaswamy (1949) showed that processors dictate the price of the nuts. Also the long marketing channels with middlemen and village merchants increase the price spreads in the areca nut supply chains (Suryaprakash et al., 1979; and Naik and Arora, 1986). Literature also shows that small farmers are the victims of moneylenders cum traders, itinerant traders and also shopkeepers for the marketing of areca nut (Talukdar, 1984). All these reduce the efficiency of the supply chains. Poor efficiency in the marketing channels contributes a very small share of the consumer’s rupee to the farmers (Ashturker and Deole, 1995; and Kaul, 1997), as a result of which farmers are losing interest in farming.

Supply Chain Management Journal, Dynamics, Areca, Nut, Supply Chains, Garo Hills, Meghalaya, Product, Information Flow, Perspective.