Walmart Foundation and Pradan (PRADAN) have announced the launch of the ‘PROWFIT’ project to improve the livelihood of small landholding and marginal farming families in the tribal rural areas of the country’s eastern states. PROWFIT (Process of Organized Resources and Women Farmers for Transforming’) initiative to transform Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) to support 60 women-led Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) over the next 30 months Is.
The project, funded by a $2 million grant from the Walmart Foundation, aims to create viable smallholder businesses for approximately 120,000 women with a cumulative annual turnover of $32 million. Under this project, FPOs will have to prepare business plans and finalize necessary systems and procedures, besides making administrative arrangements for their ventures. In addition, they will also get technology and financial support by linking them to various service partners and related programs of the national and state governments for other assistance. For example, under the Government of India’s scheme ‘Formation and Promotion of 10,000 Farmer Producer Organizations’, 29 FPOs of this project will get access to better technology, credit, better inputs and many other markets so that they can improve the quality of their products. Apart from this, you can also get better prices from them. PROWFIT has been launched after the success of PRADAN’s previous project ‘LEAP’ (Livelihoods Enhancement through Market Access and Women Empowerment). The Walmart Foundation has provided a $1.9 million grant for Project Leap over a two-year period. This project improved the livelihood of 45,000 small farmers in Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal. The program has helped smallholder farmers (SHFs) double their income over a period of four years with an emphasis on creating opportunities for capacity building to bring them above the poverty line by making their farming businesses sustainable. These women farmers have already been linked to Self-Help Groups (SHGs) and consolidated into formal production clusters, so that they can engage in agriculture and allied activities with the help of synchronized production and market interface. These informal producer groups have now taken the form of 13 formal farmer producer organizations and the process of strengthening them is on. Commenting on the grant, Julie Geharki, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Walmart Foundation, said, “The grant aligns perfectly with our efforts to strengthen farmer producer organizations in India, like PROWFIT and LEAP, which deepen their linkages to markets by ensuring their quantity, quality and sustainability of production processes.The new investment for Pradan will help reach more rural women, while emphasizing sustainable ways of increasing yields and More impact can be created by creating sources of income. Muni Heparika, a woman from the Kandha tribe of Odisha, joined the Ma Gangadevi Producer Group (PG) in 2021, which is part of the Mahila Pragati Farmer Producers Company Limited, which has been promoted under the LEAP project to grow brinjal during the monsoon this year. Muni says, “I had a feeling that with Pradan’s help, I would succeed. He had already taught me about nursery preparation, crop care and pest management (IPM or Integrated Pest Management) and various trainings have been conducted under the LEAP project on preparation of organic medicines. Without the support of the FPO, it would not have been possible for me to take this decision of joining Bengal cultivation to increase my income.” Pradan’s Integrator Avijit Chowdhary said, “Our projects through the LEAP and PROWFIT projects are instrumental in not only empowering marginal and rural women to be recognized as ‘women farmers’, but also through the over 60 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) It is also helpful in establishing them as business leaders and entrepreneurs by helping them.” Like LEAP, PROWFIT will transform lives and improve livelihoods by creating inspiring stories of empowerment and change. But in order to continue and enhance the momentum that has been created by the change at the social level and the formation of economic groups like Farmer Producer Organisations, it has to be ensured that these FPOs establish themselves as self-sustaining business units that operate in markets, community institutions. And can interact with the local administration at their own level.
Source: yourstory.com
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