The development literature has long supported the view of connecting the agricultural sector to value chains to boost productivity, expand markets and improve sector competitiveness. While there are several market failures that make this a daunting task, there are opportunities for the private sector to step in and initiate or expand these linkages. This paper is first in a series that discusses a proposed agricultural value chain connectivity index based on the framework proposed by Trienekens (2011). This index will allow the authors to measure the potential of the Philippine sector to upgrade its value chains connection and identify the areas of weaknesses that need to be addressed to further integrate various agricultural sectors into the value chain. This index can also help identify and recommend areas where the private sector can participate in addressing these constraints and maximize the development potential of value chain upgrading. This paper will present the conceptual framework underlying the index and discuss its general structure and an overview of the variables that will be considered for inclusion in the measure.