Digitalizing traditional agri-food supply chains in developing economies: A pathway to regulated sustainable governance

This study presents a comprehensive framework for digitalizing traditional agri-food supply chains (TASCs) in developing economies, paving the way towards digital transformation. Digitizing is the initial step of digital transformation, which is the conversion of analog information into digital form. Digitalization is the use of digital technologies to improve existing processes, and digital transformation is the comprehensive integration of digital technologies to fundamentally reshape operations and business models. TASCs in developing economies rely on manual information, leading to inefficiencies and resource wastage. Employing an abductive reasoning approach, the study investigates a case study in a developing economy. A social network analysis was conducted along with process mapping for the identified case study to evaluate stakeholder interactions, identifying key metrics like degree centrality, betweenness centrality, and closeness centrality. The study identified farming input suppliers, agriculture field officers and distribution center managers as critical influencing stakeholders in this social network. The framework introduced in the study emphasizes regulated digitalization, where governing bodies oversee seed supply and production planning to ensure alignment with market demand. The proposed framework offers benefits for all supply chain stakeholders while improving transparency, optimizing resources, leading to improved production planning, minimized post-harvest wastage, reducing price volatility and increasing food security. The framework offers strategic insights for both policymakers and researchers aiming to modernize TASCs by triangulation of data with stakeholder benefits. Overall, this study provides a structured roadmap for digitalizing the TASCs in developing economies, laying the foundation towards digital transformation and agricultural sustainability.