Farmers are the backbone of India’s agrarian economy. However almost 70% farmers in India are small and marginal, with landholding size less than 2 hectares or 5 acres approximately. Therefore, to enhance the farmers’ conditions, their collectivisation and entrepreneurial development is essential.
SwitchON’s theory of change follows an ecosystem approach, where stakeholders are benefitted holistically. SwitchON has been developing sustainable enterprises for the last one decade, and has incubated 3 social enterprises and over 500 micro enterprises. SwitchON has established 5 successful Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) in West Bengal. Currently. SwitchON has been recognized as a Cluster Based Business Organisation (CBBO) under NABARD, Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), Government of Sikkim and NAFED and empanelled to form and promote 27 FPOs across the country, i.e, in Sikkim, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya and Manipur in financial year 2020-21. Recently, 5 FPOs were registered under SFAC in Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra, formed and facilitated by SwitchON.
SwitchON’s ecosystem approach in enterprise development involves entrepreneurship and skill building for farmers, providing handholding support and business management by the farmer collective. SwitchON mobilises farmers to form FPOs and support in their market linkage, scheme linkages, agri-business initiation and management and trading licence procurement. They also provide training on agriculture and non-agricultural capacity building to motivate farmers to take up sustainable agriculture with a sustainable enterprise.
FPO management is generally done by farmers, therefore they need support in various ways to develop the FPO from a farmer collective to a successful business entity. SwitchON mediates the risk-taking endeavours for the FPO to enhance farmer incomes. For example, sometimes farmers are not confident enough to negotiate with large buyers and market players, and end up selling their produce at less than their optimum prices. SwitchON comes in here and brings the farmers and buyers together, and thus the farmers get the most optimum prices of the products.
FPOs have doubled farmer incomes on average, and FPO managed business activities have brought social entrepreneurship amongst them. For example, small and marginal cashew farmers of Garbeta I & II block in West Midnapore district of West Bengal faced difficulties in production as the cost of each cashew nut seedling is very high in the market. Matangani Cashew Agro Producer Company Limited took an initiative to form a cashew nursery in their block and sell the cashew seedlings through their FPO. “The distribution of seeds and saplings has made cashew production profitable. The plants provided in collaboration with BCKV are of high quality export variety and thus more profitable,” said Tapan Sil, a FPO member and cashew producer.
75% farmers reported over 50% increase in yields in pre-existing crops and have diversified their cropping pattern to cluster-identified crops. High adoption rates of new practices are seen where farmers have assured supply of quality inputs and services through a network of delivery mechanisms locally. Producers in these clusters have multiple options to market produce and enhance profitability. For instance, Lowada Flower Agro Producer Company Ltd in Debra block of West Midnapore took an initiative to promote strawberry cultivation among FPO’s member farmers. The FPO tied up with an organization to collect Mulching Paper at a reasonable price and collected Strawberry plants from Pune. Then, they sold these seedling and mulching paper among their FPO’s members at a lower cost than market. The FPO earned considerable profit by selling mulching paper and seeds, as well as turning the rural farmers into entrepreneurs producing high quality berries for sale directly to markets in Kolkata. “Previously, I used to grow flowers in the same season and have a profit of ₹10-12,000, however this year I am expecting a profit over ₹50,000,” said Manindra Samanta, a strawberry cultivator from Debra.
“The SwitchON Foundation’s role as a CBBO or Resource Institution in FPO formation has been acting as a bridge between the farmers and the external agencies, facilitating scheme linkage and promoting leadership towards a common vision. With a holistic approach, we are changing the farmers into successful business entrepreneurs as well as promoting sustainable agricultural practices amongst them for a better future for all,” says Vinay Jaju, Managing Director of SwitchON Foundation.
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