Melons are widely grown in the Minqin County of Gansu Province in western China. Besides supplying consumers within the province, good grades of melons are transported over 1000 km to interstate markets. The current supply chains of melons have various constraints that prevent delivery of satisfactory and consistent products to consumers in the local as well as interstate markets. These include technical issues of pests and diseases and inadequate handling in cold-chain storage, packaging and qualitystandards. There are also management issues of growers harvesting their melons prematurely in order to capture an early-season premium price. As a consequence, the industry suffers from decreasing consumption, albeit slowly, and poorer price returns togrowers. While these issues are recognised by the growers, no action has been taken to address the problems as growers are yet to be integrated for collective actions for common interests. This study addressed the potential to deal with some of the industry's constraints in a collective way through controlling diseases, and improving cultural practices and selection of melon varieties. Extension workshops to address these issues, based on scientific research, can be used to encourage farmers to work together, and other supply-chain issues are also being targetted. The potential benefits to farmers include a bigger 'slice of the pie' in the value chain, but whether farmers can reap these benefits depends on the extent to which they can work together.
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