Supply Chain of Mucuna Pruriens

Supply Chain of Mucuna Pruriens

Assignment-I

SCM

Term- IV

Supply Chain of Mucuna pruriens

Trade of Mucuna seed has involvement of number of middle men. Collectors are collecting Mucuna seed from the forest land, roadside area and west-land. Here no involvement of the cost of cultivation and any other cost except the labour involved in the harvesting/ seed collection process. Primary trader from the locality itself will purchase the seeds from the collectors at a lower rate and again sale it to secondary traders. These traders sale it to tertiary and finally it reaches to the trader who has contact with importers of Africa, China, Indonesia and Malaysia. These final traders will generate a very high profit by exporting the Mucuna seed.

Figure1: Supply chain for Mucuna

Before shipping the Mucuna seed , seed sorting is done at the port site itself. Non-viable and damaged seeds are removed from the collection. After it reaches to the importer, X-ray test is carried out to get the viability status of the seed which is the price determining factor when it is imported for the purpose of planting material (seed) for cover crop and green manure crop.

Value Chain of Mucuna pruriens

Generally in case of Mucuna no value addition is done in the state of Tripura and out-side Tripura also. Maximum amount (around 80% of the total production from Tripura) is exported in the form of seed for plantation purpose and other medicinal purpose where L-DOPA is extracted from these seeds. Collection process is not done on regular basis and on daily wage basis. The family members who are having some free time at home will devote their free time in collection process. On an average a person/ collector collects around one kg of Mucuna seed in two days but that is not equivalent to man-day as they are not working for whole day.

The local people will get Rs. 200-400 for one kg of seed when local traders from the village purchase the seed from collectors and then again sale it to the...