A field visit to Samarpita Women Farmers’ Producer Company Ltd., Subalapur, Pipili Block, Puri, was conducted by the KIIT-TBI, SFURTI team, in collaboration with Grant Thronton (GT) Bharat. The visiting team was comprised of Sri Samarendra Sahu, Advisor, KIIT-TBI, Mr. Debashis Tripathy, Senior Manager and Mr. Suramya Mishra, Manager along with Mr. Manoj Kharb and Mr. Sambit Sasmal of GT Bharat. The visit was planned to witness the formation and functioning of the producer company developed through the Local Economic Development (LED) model, with the active support of GT Bharat.
The LED model, which has been developed by GT Bharat is already under implementation in different parts of the country including 20 blocks in Odisha. Mr. Manoj Kharb, Partner, GT Bharat has been in consultation with Advisor, KIIT-TBI to explore the possibility of strengthening the model and expanding the coverage of areas under the model.
Samarpita Women Farmers’ Producer Company Ltd was promoted by 10 of the women Board of Directors representing 10 Gram Panchayats in the Block. The producer company consisted of 527 women farmer members.
The farmers are associated with cultivation of the vegetable, green gram, black gram, paddy, and mushroom. Following value addition and processing of the aforementioned commodities, the producer company manufactures biscuits, pickles, powdered mushrooms, and millet products. In addition to the local markets, they also sell these products in the different districts of the state.
The team also learned about the FPC’s new Farmer Leader approach, which involves one prominent village farmer taking the lead in problem-solving and managing the supply chain for all agricultural commodities through an in-put shop. The visiting team also witnessed the in-put shop of the FPC at Subalpur, Pipili. The FPC members also displayed the range of products produced by them to the team.
GT Bharat has been actively involved in sourcing of the inputs and creation of the in-put shops at different places of the block in order to facilitate supply of quality inputs at reasonable prices to the farmers in the area. The GT Bharat is also guiding the producer company to identify suitable technology for processing and value addition of local agri-produce with the required lead in marketing of the products.
The FPC executives mentioned some of the problems facing the diversification of the product basket. They also mentioned about the challenges of marketing in the absence of proper packaging of the products. Advisor, KIIT TBI offered to help them in both these areas; product diversification as well as packaging of the final output.
The possibility of the producer company growing in to a larger SFURTI unit was also discussed during the meeting. Advisor KIIT TBI mentioned that the SFURTI team of KIIT TBI would help the producer company at an appropriate time to expand its activity through a full-fledged SFURTI project.
Mrs. Geetanjali Sahu, Chairperson of Samarpita Women Farmers’ Producing Company, Mr. Barish Ranjan Pradhan, CEO, Mr. Subrat Sethi, Consultant from GT Bharat, Mr. Sanjeeb Ranjan Pattnaik, Manager, Accountant-cum-MIS and Jagannath Sahu, Marketing and Procurement Manager were present during the interaction. The meeting ended with the vote of thanks.