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Managing agricultural wastes in an environment-friendly way is a critical need now and more so in the future. Spectrum Renewable Energy Limited (SREL), an incubatee of the ICRISAT Agri-Business Incubation Program (ABI), is turning agricultural waste into useful products like Compressed BioGas (CBG), organic manure and automotive fuel.

SREL converts sugarcane waste called ‘press mud’ (filter cake) into renewable CBG and organic manure/soil conditioner. Dr AV Mohan Rao, Founder and CEO, SERL, said, “Biogas plants have huge potential to produce clean fuel from agricultural organic waste. These initiatives hold the key to energy security and have the capacity to reduce the demand for electric power, consumption of chemical fertilizers and also reduce global warming. They can facilitate the replacement of fossil fuels while simultaneously making organic fertilizers available to the local farmers.”

ABI helped SREL commercialize this technology besides providing technical and business consultancy, facilitation of product enrichment, business development, and networking opportunities with agribusiness experts, corporate entities and investors.

“SREL’s aim is to develop self-sustained rural enterprises and decentralized energy systems based on CBG to make poor farmers and rural areas economically developed/competitive in all respects. This initiative has further helped the farmers with access to markets, contract farming and also strongly supports ICRISAT’s mandate of empowering smallholder farmers through sustainable agriculture,” said Mr SM Karuppanchetty, COO, ICRISAT-Agri-Business Incubation Program, which is part of the ICRISAT Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP).

The company runs its large-scale biogas generation and bottling project at Kodoli, near Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India, which can handle 100 tonnes of press-mud, producing about 7,000 kg of compressed biogas with high methane content and 30 tonnes of organic manure daily.

The product awaits necessary approvals from the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and other relevant agencies for use as transportation fuel.

At a recently conducted international training program on value chain incubators, participants learned critical skills for successfully managing their enterprises.

The workshop mainly focused on six objectives to:

• expose business managers on value chain incubator management principles
• train participants on operational systems for business incubators
• provide hands-on training to participants on scouting entrepreneurs
• engage participants in client servicing
• improve skills of participants on M&E systems
• train participants on financial management, branding and marketing strategies.

Dr Yemi Akinbamijo, Executive Director, Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), during his special address, interacted with the participants and emphasized the importance of agribusiness in Africa and highlighted the role of value chain based incubation.

The main aim of the training session was to expose the attendees to the Timbali Model in a practical hands-on way and to the theme of ‘Incubation Excellence’ as developed at Timbali over a 10-year period.

The Timbali Technology Incubator, in Johannesburg, South Africa, is well known for its franchisee-based incubation model which offers business enabling environment; access to infrastructure, technology, and shared services for its incubates. It is perfectly suited for implementation in the Agribusiness Innovation Incubation Consortia (AIICs) of the Universities, Business & Research in Agricultural Innovation (UniBRAIN). The model has scope for being scaled up and adapted across Africa.

The training program was based on a small-group-workshop-approach, wherein the issues faced at their specific business incubation service environment, were identified by the participants. The delegates then worked out practical solutions based on their experience, approaches and lessons discussed at the incubator. The training also involved six exposure visits to crop production, packaging and business locations as a part of on-site training activity.

The key take-away points listed by the participants from the training program were to set up viable systems; align activities to the needs and the demands of the market; selection of right technology and inputs; enhanced monitoring and evaluation systems for incubators; accurate market analysis, branding, innovations leading to strong and unique value propositions. The participants appreciated the overall training module including the unique farmer-business game.

UniBRAIN is an initiative for advancing agribusiness incubation and improved agribusiness education in Africa. The Agri-Business Incubation (ABI) Program of the Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP) of ICRISAT has been entrusted with the handholding and mentoring activities of UniBRAIN’s 6 pilot AIICs, which work in critical African agricultural value chains.

The training program, attended by 30 participants, was conducted under the supervision of Ms Louise de Klerk, CEO, Timbali, Mr Karuppanchetty, COO, ABI-ICRISAT and Mr Alex Ariho, UniBRAIN Facility Coordinator. The training was organized at the Timbali Technology Incubator, Nelspruit, South Africa.

Diversifying crops and diets to include nutri-cereals like millets and sorghum, attracting youth to farming, unlocking the potential of digital agriculture and creating economic opportunities for smallholder farmers, were some of the key issues that Kenyan government officials, partners, entrepreneurs and academicians discussed with Dr David Bergvinson, Director General, ICRISAT, who visited the country in mid-April.

Forging partnerships with the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture

Discussing the need to diversify, Ms. Sicily Kanini Kariuki, Principal Secretary, State Department of Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, said, “We have to get Kenyan consumers to diversify their diets and we must be able to get interventions that help farm enterprises generate a little more income and also ensure they are more resilient.”

Both Ms Kariuki and Dr Bergvinson agreed that enterprise diversification for high-value nutritional products needs to be strengthened. Dr Bergvinson talked of the need to create economic opportunities for farmers. “We are working with entrepreneurs in Kenya using the Agribusiness and Innovation Platform to build up the next generation of entrepreneurs who can identify processing and marketing opportunities for these commodities,” he said.

Emphasizing the importance of creating awareness about nutrition and diversification of diets, Dr Bergvinson spoke of the ICRISAT approach centered around the value chain framework. It ensures there is a good understanding of the consumer’s as well as farmer’s requirements and using that to deliver the right solution.

The Ministry and ICRISAT will together plan on how to execute the value chain country strategies being developed. Using a business approach; identifying the right partnerships and working with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) who see a bigger opportunity in this, would be the best way forward. A roundtable discussion with key stakeholders, including the private sector, will be organized as early as possible.

Strengthening relationships with partners

USAID

Interacting with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) officials, Mr Andrew Read, Agriculture Team Leader, and Mr Harrigan Mukhongo, Business & Organization Development Advisor, Dr Bergvinson informed that ICRISAT will soon be sharing its country strategies with them. “We are looking at the value chain framework which specially targets poor smallholder farmers in the semi-arid tropics, which fit your demographics.”

Some of the key points discussed were:

• Raising awareness on nutritional value of sorghum and millets to create demand
• Value addition in partnership with small and medium enterprises
• Building aggregation facilities
• Looking at technology delivery channels including the private sector, formal and informal sector
• Effective communication to stimulate adoption
• Identify varieties of crops that are suitable for particular processing technologies
• Use of digital technology, including mobiles.

USAID team said that their main focus was on sorghum, millet and groundnuts, and they were looking at strengthening the entire value chain to reach their goal of getting 500,000 households in Kenya out of poverty. They indicated that they are in talks with different CGIAR Centers, ICRISAT being one of them, to bring them all in one group and work on a project (the others are International Livestock Research Institute, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center and International Potato Center).

ICRAF

Dr Bergvinson met the senior management team at the World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) in Nairobi and discussed possible areas of collaboration such as: green water management, bringing crop components into systems research, using digital technology to support systems integration, testing and promotion of sorghum in semi-arid areas (particularly intercropping with green gram and cowpea), and research on climate smart agriculture.

Dr Bergvinson highlighted ICRISAT’s strength in digital technology to support integration of systems and delivery of knowledge to the farmers. He said, “This is where our partnership can unlock the potential of diversification extending beyond crops to agroforestry.”

IDRC

Dr Simon Carter, Regional Director, International Development Research Center (IDRC), said their focus was on impacts at scale, partnerships and leadership. Dr Bergvinson spoke of ICRISAT’s country strategies, which he said will be useful in articulating what is needed at the country level and in identifying the right partnerships to work with and help achieve impacts at scale. “We want to be a partner of choice for donors,” he stressed.

 

Dr Moses Siambi, Regional Director, Eastern and Southern Africa, ICRISAT, briefed the IDRC team on the plan to increase utilization of sorghum and millets by creating awareness of their nutritional value, as well as work with small-scale enterprises to develop value-added products. Dr Carter stated that starting with nutrition at the center to drive productivity was a “great idea”. He suggested that ICRISAT consider the use of social institutions (eg, health officials) to deliver the messages to consumers.

 

 

Supporting sorghum and millets processors

In a meeting with sorghum and millet processors based in Nairobi, Dr Bergvinson acknowledged the important role of processors in the value chain. In his remarks, Dr Bergvinson gave a brief about ICRISAT’s plan to create structures based around value chains and to commercialize sorghum. “I am excited about this program, it started in India as an idea, came to Africa in partnership with other partners and now we are discussing the challenges and opportunities that we see here in Kenya,” he said. He informed participants of an interaction he had earlier with the Principal Secretary, Department of Agriculture, who was very happy about the new opportunities around sorghum and millet value addition.

He referred to sorghum and millet as “smart foods” saying that diversification of these crops will help create economic opportunities for smallholder farmers. This requires a host of partners coming together with research organizations such as Kenyan Agriculture & Livestock Research Organization, ICRISAT, and processors.

The processors are members of the agribusiness incubation program of the Sorghum Value Chain Development Consortium (SVDC) and the ICRISAT Agribusiness Innovation Platform (AIP). The team from SVCDC and AIP were also present at the meeting.

Exploring areas of collaboration with UoN

In discussions with Prof. Agnes Mwang’ombe, Principal, College of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences, University of Nairobi (UoN), possible areas of future partnerships identified were:

• Research on farming systems and livestock, using ICRISAT mandate cereals and legumes for livestock fodder and feed.
• Capacity building through co-supervision of masters and doctoral students using ICRISAT’s research skills, research facilities and germplasm.
• Modernizing knowledge dissemination through on-line courses, with UoN acting as a regional catalyst in this process.
• Need for building capacity of researchers to meet future demand as many of the present staff are on the verge of retirement.
• Development of country strategies, involving the private sector and agricultural universities including UoN in Kenya.

Leveraging digital technology

To attract youth to agriculture, digital technology is the key. In his meeting with Mr Benjamin Makai, a senior manager at Safaricom Ltd, a leading mobile network operator in Kenya, Dr Bergvinson said, “We want to unlock the potential of digital agriculture to integrate our farmers to equitable markets and create awareness among consumers for better nutrition. Digital agriculture is the vehicle to get the youth into agriculture.”

Mr Makai said the company’s focus areas included financial services (providing credit facilities to smallholder farmers), information dissemination including sharing best practices with farmers (on subscription or on demand), supply chain and access to market. Dr Bergvinson highlighted ICRISAT’s interests and activities around digital agriculture including mobile technology, remote sensing GIS technology and genomics.

The following opportunities for partnership were identified:

Use the mobile platform to increase awareness among consumers about nutritional value of traditional crops such as sorghum and millets and grain legumes. This will create new market opportunities.
Create economic opportunities for smallholder farmers and processors through the use of mobile technology to support market integration and equitable market, especially for the commodities that have been displaced.
Knowledge exchange through digital communication with farmers – exploring opportunities for pre-loading information on a SIM card so that it can reach the farmers quickly.

Interaction with ICRISAT-Kenya staff

During Dr Bergvinson’s visit to the ICRISAT genomics lab in Nairobi one of the suggestions made by the DG was to distill rainwater instead of tap water and take advantage of the soft water from nature that would improve most of the lab processes. The lab, hosted and shared jointly with ICRAF, was renovated and expanded in 2014 to accommodate the recently launched African Orphan Crops genomics activities.

The last stop on his visit was the sequencing lab, where the African Orphan Crops Consortium (AOCC) is currently supporting the sequencing of highly nutritious, less researched African crops, jointly with ICRAF. Dr Bergvinson was particularly impressed with the finger millet whole genome sequencing under the AOCC projects and coordination of the activity with counterparts from Bengaluru, India.

At a luncheon meet organized by the staff to celebrate Dr Bergvinson’s 100 days in office, the Director General thanked the team for their support in developing country strategies and meeting with partners. “We need to raise our game on science, and through partnerships achieve impacts,” he urged.

At a recently organized training, rural entrepreneurs were exposed to value addition for cassava. Training was also provided on food processing management systems, food safety and business management.

This incubator, Pilot Incubation Center (CIP), Bonaberi, Douala, is unique for processing of cassava-based products that include chips, semolina, noodles, flour, etc, and incubates rural entrepreneurs on primary processing.

The training was organized as part of the ongoing project of the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), Government of India, towards establishing Food Processing Business Incubation Centres in five African countries – Ghana, Mali, Uganda, Cameroon, Angola. The ICRISAT-Agribusiness and Innovation Platform organized the training program for the incubator staff, in partnership with the Cameroon Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Crafts.

Dr Saikat Datta Mazumdar, Chief Operating Officer – NutriPlus Knowledge Program, ICRISAT and
Dr S Aravazhi, Chief Operating Officer – Innovation and Partnership Program, ICRISAT, also reviewed the progress on the ongoing activities towards establishment of the cassava value chain incubator.

At the Global Forum for Innovations in Agriculture (GFIA) Dr David Bergvinson, Director General, ICRISAT, spoke on ICT for Sustainable Agriculture. He highlighted the importance of leveraging digital technology to accelerate the development and delivery of farmer-preferred products and services, to increase agricultural productivity of the smallholder farmers, in a sustainable and equitable manner in the developing world.

A roundtable discussion titled ‘Towards a Global Agribusiness and Innovation Platform for promoting value chains and entrepreneurship development on Nutri-Cereals and Legumes’ was chaired by Dr Kiran Sharma, CEO, ICRISAT Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP). Public and private sector organizations participated in the roundtable. The need for an ecosystem to make agriculture profitable and attractive to youth, through developing sustainable agribusiness enterprises was highlighted. Use of genomic tools, appropriate postharvest technologies, promoting mixed cropping systems, smart choices around nutrition, value chain analysis towards understanding the gaps including understanding of the critical ecological footprint indices, ICT etc., were some of the important components identified as being essential towards enabling such an ecosystem.

To help smallholder farmers get good returns from agriculture and also help them access quality seeds the government of the Indian state of Telangana will set up a Seed Export Accelerator and a Sorghum Export Development Platform.

Strategies to boost the export of sorghum, sorghum products and seeds from India were deliberated at the two-day consultative meeting on ‘Enhancing exports of sorghum and seeds from India’ organized by the ICRISAT Agri-Business Incubation Program.

Speaking on the occasion the Minister for Agriculture, Cooperation and Horticulture, Telangana State, Mr Pocharam Srinivas Reddy said, “The Government of Telangana is committed to encouraging the setting up of a Seed Export Accelerator and Sorghum Export Development Platform.

This initiative will help farmers have greater access to quality seeds and will also improve their financial condition.”

Dr David Bergvinson, Director General, ICRISAT said, “We want to create economic opportunities and increase the nutritional status of the farmers of Telangana. It is not just about achieving better nutrition but also improving the returns and profits for farmers.”

The panel discussions centered around export opportunities for sorghum food products, commodity trading, sorghum-based feed industry, sorghum consumer and industrial products technology, challenges and opportunities in the export market, and market development of new seeds, among other issues.

Mr RK Boyal, Director, Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) stressed on the “need to work on strategies that contribute to increasing the export of value-added sorghum products so that smallholder farmers may derive good returns.”

The Seed Export Accelerator will work with farmer producer organizations, multinational corporations, and small and medium enterprises to provide key services such as access to new hybrids/varieties of seeds, market and policy information, export market linkages, financial assistance and quality control. It will strengthen the Seed Export Promotion Zones and establish testing and certification facilities in conformity with international standards.

The consultative meeting was organized by ICRISAT and APEDA on 17-18 March at ICRISAT-India. It was attended by over 100 participants from the public and private sectors, exporters, R&D organizations, government officials and representatives from the seed industry (Pioneer, Bioseed, Ganga Kaveri Seeds) and food processing industry (Karachi Bakery, MTR Foods, and Frumer Marketing).

Providing a platform for promoting agribusiness entrepreneurship will lead to sustainable agricultural development in Africa. The African Agribusiness Incubator Network (AAIN) aims to bring together agribusiness incubators, incubator leaders, managers, and partner with both state and non-state actors at continental levels. It aims to provide Africa a strong policy platform that can engage globally with other incubators and organizations for mutual benefit.

“AAIN aims to be a world-class networking and advocacy platform that encourages entrepreneurship, innovations in agriculture through the establishment of incubators, leading to sustainable agricultural development in Africa. It aims to make agribusinesses global, sustainable and flourish in Africa in the future,” said Dr Yemi Akinbamijo, Executive Director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) at the recently held AAIN conference in Johannesburg, South Africa.

AAIN was formed recently by the Universities, Business & Research in Agricultural Innovation (UniBRAIN), interest group which aims to work together as a pan-African community of agribusiness incubators. ICRISAT is a key partner in the UniBRAIN project which supports the establishment of value chain incubators in African countries to commercialize agricultural technologies and produce graduates with entrepreneurial and business skills.

An AAIN workshop was held on the sidelines of FARA@15. FARA brought together key industry players including its program partners to review the progress made at country, sub-regional and continental levels and decide on milestones for Africa’s future over the next decade through science-led agricultural transformation.

Mr SM Karuppanchetty, COO, Agri-Business Incubator (ABI)-ICRISAT, shared his experiences and lessons on handholding the 22 Business Planning and Development (BPD) units of the Network of Indian Agribusiness Incubators (NIABI) in India as a possible approach in expanding the UniBRAIN and the AAIN network in Africa.

The annual conference of the AAIN was also held on the sidelines of FARA@15. Dr Kiran Sharma, CEO, Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP)-ICRISAT, presented a special address on behalf of Dr William Dar, Director General ICRISAT, on Inclusive Market Oriented Development (IMOD) through Agribusiness in Africa.

“Through the IMOD approach in Africa, ABI-ICRISAT, through UniBRAIN has handheld six Agribusiness Innovation Incubator Consortia (AIICs). These AIICs have supported 188 incubatees, commercialized 35 agro-technologies, created 831 jobs and benefitted 240 interns. Further, 138 universities have adopted the new agribusiness education curriculum framework of UniBRAIN and 24 new countries have expressed interest to start new AIICs.

We look forward to working closely with different partners in Africa to further strengthen the agri- and food-processing sector through strategic interventions to strengthen value chains, promote food safety and development of innovative products and technologies, facilitate entrepreneurship and ultimately help the smallholder farmers,” said Dr Sharma. Operational guidelines and membership facilitation into AAIN were among the key areas that were discussed. The conference resulted in the submission of 46 new membership applications on the same day.

The annual conference was preceded by the UniBRAIN steering committee meet where lessons were drawn from milestones reached and discussions were held to come up with solutions that set the strategy for delivering sustainable solutions for the progress of UniBRAIN incubators. The steering committee members also visited the Timbali Business Incubator, Nelspruit, South Africa on a study tour.

In February 2015 ABI proposes to organize a training program for the managerial staff of AIICs at the Timbali Business Incubator, Nelspruit, South Africa.

ICRISAT recently organized a capacity building program for Farmer producer organizations (FPOs) to provide better understanding of the gaps and opportunities for FPOs in agribusiness, best practices on running an FPO, seed production and effective business plan development initiatives for FPO developers and funding agencies.

“The FPO capacity building program is quite useful for emerging FPOs, and participants have benefitted greatly as the program provided them with inputs on converting their agri-business ideas into reality,” said Mr AV Poomurugesan, Executive Director, Kazhi Kadaimadai Farmers Federation from Tamilnadu and a speaker at the workshop.

The participants visited the Mulkanoor Cooperative Rural Bank and Marketing Society (MCRBMS) Ltd, a self-sustainable cooperative run by farmers of 14 villages in Karimnagar district of Telangana, India. The operations of MCRBMS range from dairy to a modern rice mill and seed production. Mulkanoor also has one of the largest paddy seed growing and selling operations in the country, with three seed-processing plants with a capacity to process 64 tons of seeds per day.

“Three units of paddy seed processing plants; a milk collection, packing & distribution center run by the local women farmers; a cotton ginning mill, all under one cooperative of over 7,500 farmers! This is one of the best examples of a cooperative group, and is a role model in several ways,” said Mr Sanjeev Prabha, Director of Jaikishan Multi foundation, Bidar, Karnataka.

“The exposure visit to a food processing unit particularly was interesting where we got an opportunity to see how food processing has been mechanised and I have gained knowledge on various food marketing related aspects,” Mr Shivaram, State-Coordinator from Chetna Organics, Hyderabad, India, a group which works with small and marginal farmers towards improving their livelihood.

Five FPOs expressed interest in receiving business incubation support from ICRISAT’s Agri-Business Incubation (ABI) program. Participants interested in seed business have also placed orders for foundation seeds of chickpea (39
tons), pigeonpea (1.6 tons), millet (0.1 ton) and groundnut (13.4 tons).

“The participants were exposed to extensive knowledge and information, as well as managerial inputs on effective FPO management. They were given detailed sessions on marketing and branding, food quality control, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) policies and regulatory compliances, best practices in establishing and governance for FPOs, seed processing, packaging and certification, and field visits to seed and food processing units for better understanding,” said Mr SM Karuppanchetty, Chief Operating Officer, ABI-ICRISAT.

FPOs bring farmers, especially smallholder farmers, on a common platform to foster technology penetration, improve productivity, enable improved access to inputs and services, and increase farmer incomes. This helps create and strengthen sustainable agriculture based livelihoods. Turning these collective ventures into sustainable and profitable models would help smallholder farmers actively participate in emerging high-value markets.

Mr A Praveen Reddy, President of MCRBMS, advised the farmers to start with small-scale operations with a concentrated and a long-term plan approach.

Training on seed production was given by Drs P Janila, Senior Scientist, Groundnut Breeding; A Ashok Kumar, Senior Scientist, Sorghum Breeding, S K Gupta, Senior Scientist, Pearl Millet Breeding, and Pooran Gaur, Asst Research Program Director, Grain Legumes.

The five-day training, held from 28 October to 1 November, was attended by 50 farmer producers from the Indian states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa and Rajasthan. Participants explored areas of FPO management, financial management, seed business, agro and food processing management.

The activity was undertaken as part of the CGIAR Research Programs on Dryland Cereals and on Grain Legumes.

Farmer producer organizations (FPOs) from six states of India are benefiting from the agribusiness facilitation of ICRISAT that will enable them to operate as businesses and make their farm operations sustainable and profitable.

At a recent Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) Summit, smallholder producers convened to explore agribusiness opportunities in the areas of technology penetration, improving productivity and access to inputs and services, and increasing incomes for a sustainable agriculture-based livelihood.

Organized by the Agri-Business Incubation (ABI) Program of ICRISAT, on 27 October the one-day summit was attended by over 100 smallholder producers from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan.

Of the 100 participants, 12 have shown interest in Seed Business Incubation and Seed Production of Cereals (sorghum, millet) and Legumes (groundnut, pigeonpea, chickpea), five for Business Incubation Support, 14 for Food Business Incubation support and six for Seed and Food Processing incubation.

At the summit, ABI-ICRISAT provided the participants with extensive knowledge and information, as well as networking support in setting-up and promoting FPOs. The participants were composed of aspiring entrepreneurs, progressive farmers, members of self-help groups, and representatives from farmers’ welfare and rural livelihood development organizations.

“The FPO approach is an intervention owned, managed and executed by smallholder farmers themselves. We need to scale up and increase the number of FPOs through agribusiness incubators so that we can bring in more stakeholders in making agriculture more sustainable and profitable,” Dr William Dar, Director General, ICRISAT, said.

“In India, 35% of farmers do not have access to organized credit. With significant movement of rural labor from farm to non-farm activities, labor scarcity has emerged as one of the biggest constraints to agricultural production in the country. Mechanization of agriculture is the only solution to improve farming,” said Mr CVR Rajendran, Chairman and Managing Director of Andhra Bank.

According to Mr Ramakrishnaiah Duvvuri, Team Leader, Management Support Group – Farmer Producer Organizations (MSG-FPO), Small Farmers’ Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC), “FPOs are essential for the empowerment, poverty alleviation and advancement of farmers and the rural poor. The Ministry of Agriculture has declared the year 2014 as the Year of the Farmer Producer Organizations. Through better marketing of agricultural products and bargaining for lower interest rates from the banks, smallholder farmers will be able to expand their employment opportunities and increase their rural incomes.”

“We have made progress in promoting and organizing farmers to become FPOs, but much work is still needed to make these organizations scalable and sustainable. Today’s summit aims to provide the participants with information on how to access markets and secure finance, and to identify the role of agribusiness incubators in taking the FPO initiative forward,” said Mr SM Karuppanchetty, COO, ABI-ICRISAT.

At the summit, participants gained a better understanding of the gaps and opportunities for FPOs in agribusiness, initiatives by the government through various schemes, capital and funding schemes, and networking opportunities for FPO developers and funding agencies. Mr Poomurugesan, Executive Director of the Kazhi Kadmadai Farmers Federation, an ABI-ICRISAT supported FPO in Tamil Nadu, presented his success story.

The agribusiness incubation concept has been successfully demonstrated in setting up a farmer-managed seed enterprise. A farmers’ organisation in Tamil Nadu, India, has set up a professionally managed seed enterprise with mentoring and handholding by ICRISAT’s Agri-Business Incubation (ABI) Program. Apart from investing in the venture, ABI also provided support across the entire value chain from introducing seed varieties to help with branding, marketing and promotion activities.

The Kazhi Kadaimadai Farmers Federation (KKFF) ventured into seed production in 2008 with funding assistance of Rs 0.75 million (US$12,283) under the ABI program. This support was for procuring seed processing machinery. ABI also assisted KKFF in obtaining a corpus fund of Rs 0.2 million (US$ 3,275) for operations under the Technology Development Board’s (TDB) funding scheme of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India.

Under ABI’s guidance and training KKFF operates like a company governed by farmers and managed by professionals like executive director, technical officer, accountant, etc., who are engaged and employed by the federation. Every farmer member of this federation now earns an additional income of Rs 12,500 to Rs 17,500 (US$ 201 to 283) per hectare while KKFF generates a net profit of Rs 0.6 million (US$ 9,826) from an annual turnover of over Rs 12 million (approx. US$ 200,000).

“The lack of good quality seeds required us to start a seed business program. We collaborated with ICRISAT in 2008, and they helped us with business plan development, assistance in establishing our seed-processing unit, branding, and seed promotion activities. They also assisted us with selection of seed entrepreneurs and facilitated new seed varieties through the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), provided technical assistance and field exposure visits for our farmers,” said Mr AV Poomurugesan, Executive Director, KKFF.

In 2009, KKFF established its seed processing plant and registered its own brand of seeds ‘Pudhan’. Seed production was initiated in 15 hectares of land, which has now increased to about 100 hectares, resulting in the production and sales of over 300 tons of seed annually.

“This initiative has the potential to create a system which can be replicated among more farmers. It is a business proposition for the farmers and by the farmers to promote agricultural development with market linkages and to tackle the challenges faced by farmers, besides providing a model for others to emulate,” said Dr Kiran Sharma, CEO, Agribusiness and Innovation Platform (AIP), ICRISAT.

KKFF had also promoted the cultivation of ICRISAT’s groundnut variety, ICGV9114 early this year as a summer crop. This was well accepted and certified groundnut seed was supplied to the local farmers and to the government agricultural extension center (Krishi Vigyan Kendra) in Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu.

Humble beginnings

KKFF started in 2006 as a post-tsunami response program to facilitate rehabilitation of the affected communities in Nagapattinam area. With 25 members, KKFF initially started paddy seed production by sourcing breeder and foundation seeds from TNAU, Coimbatore, India. The quantum of seed produced has grown substantially since 2006 and they are now able to meet more than 10% of the seed demand in Nagapattinam district.

KKFF now has over 900 farmer members, including more than a hundred seed entrepreneurs. This has spurred many more local farmers to turn into seed entrepreneurs, paving the way to Inclusive Market-Oriented Development (IMOD).

Commenting on the growth of KKFF, Mr SM Karuppanchetty, COO, ABI program says, “ICRISAT aims to enhance the capacity of farmers through promoting FPOs in agribusiness. The number of farmers involved by KKFF; area brought under seed production; quantity of seed produced; and revenue has increased tremendously ever since our intervention in 2008. Farmers have realized more revenue from seed production compared to normal grain production, thereby creating interest among fellow farmers to take up seed production.”

To ensure additional financial support and cater to the welfare of its members, KKFF also promotes crop insurance and the cultivation of crops like black gram as rice fallow, besides vegetables such as cluster beans, eggplant, and tomato.