FIELD PROJECT IN INDIA
Founded by renowned social-activist Chetna Gala Sinha, our partner Mann Deshi Foundation aims to assist rural women to become entrepreneurs and contribute to their communities. Chetna Sinha has been a driving force behind India’s policy initiatives to support low-income communities, and in 2018 was the Co-Chair of the Word Economic Forum at Davos.
Mann Deshi Foundation will launch the Mann Deshi Kisan Producer Company to develop a sustainable market based on higher value, demand-driven production to improve the livelihood of farmers and the broader community. A successful business model could hopefully be replicated to benefit the other parts of the country.
India is the second most populous country in the world. Agriculture is its biggest employer. Nearly 45% of the country’s 1.3 billion people are directly engaged in the farming sector. The agricultural sector however contributes to less than 17% of the country’s GDP, with a majority farmers living in extreme poverty.
Loan waivers, subsidy schemes, optimum pricing mechanisms and agriculture credit have been initiated by the government to improve farmers’ incomes. However, farmers continue to suffer from unfavourable market dynamics, earning less than a quarter of the final selling price with the middlemen taking a majority of profits. There is a crucial need to help farmers sell their produce with a better profit margin.
Focusing on demand-driven production, aggregating produce to establish a trading hub that can influence the supply chain and establishing suitable supporting infrastructure and industries such as warehouses, packaging and processing facilities are just some ideas that could help add value to locally grown produce and improve the incomes of farmers.
During Module Two, participants will have the opportunity to meet with Mann Deshi and different local stakeholders to determine the best opportunities for a commercial viable farmer producer organisation that has the potential to improve the livelihoods of farmers all over India.