Deshpande Foundation , Hubli 13.7.22

@Gautam Mandewalker @Jayasankar G K @rikin (Unlicensed) @Ashu Sikri (Unlicensed) @Sai @Vineet Singh

Gautam and Sai please add your observations here in this sheet.

In the Agri sector, they work on 3 initiatives

Farm Ponds via JLGs

2. Better cotton initiatives

3. FPOs (working with about 20 FPOs).

Farm pond via JLGs- DF is the promoting agency for the NABARD-supported farm pond promotion program through JLGs and the financial partner is the State Bank of India.

Mode of Operation – The DF facilitates the formation of JLGs of farmers whoever is willing to construct Farm ponds. DF would collect Adhar card and Land records from each farmer and builds a lengthy application which is scrutinized at different levels before it is submitted to the bank. We met Kalmeshwara JLG which is comprised of 5 farmers and they have taken credit of Rs 60 K each for the construction of the Farm pond. The JLG is more of NABARD’s requirement than the need of establishing a farm pond. Except for the monthly meetings, nothing is shared.

The entire process is managed by the DF; farmers are unaware of anything except the information that they need to repay the loan in 3 years.

Construction of Farm pond: DF will hire a vendor to dig a pond and hand it over to each FP would cost around 1.10 Lakhs. In this case, Credit is 60K+ 10K from LTI ( CSR)+40K from DF. The credit deposited in the joint bank account is directly transferred to the vendors after completion of the work. And farmers have clue about Field associates would collect all the details from farmers (Supposedly on the app, but we did not see any app) like photos of the site, before photos, after photos, crop details, and others. And these ponds are mapped on Google Maps to see the distribution.

So far they have constructed 6K farm ponds and a target of 1 lakh farm ponds in the next 5 years. And the tech interventions they are planning are

· Digitise farm records.

· Identifying Farm locations using Satellite

· Access to markets

· Monitoring crop health ( They have started with soil moisture sensors)

· Farmer advisory – started with call centers

· JLG process

What they have documented

· Captured 6K+ farmers and Ponds

· Farm Pond before and after images

· Landmarking

· Auto generation of JLG loan document

FPO-

Visited Kalmeshwara FPO, 1200 members, established in 2016. This is the model FPO that DF is building.

-year's plan- 14 CR

-This year’s plan -100 CR

-DF has deployed around 10 members to manage the FPC

-The field agents collect farmers' information, especially seed requirements and fertilizer requirements.

-First FPC in the state to be involved in seed production. The Karnataka state seed corporation would give them foundation seeds and FPO members produce seeds (Green Gram as of now).

-Plan to get working capital from SBI/HDFC/NabKisan/ Samunnati

-DF is willing to collaborate with DG for any tech interventions that would help FPO.

-FPO has established Oil mills, Dal Mills, Packing Unit, an Input supply shop, and an Outlet for Grocery.

-FPO has good connections with the Input suppliers and institutional buyers ( DF connects FPO with them).

Rural Transformation Technology Centre-

@Gautam Mandewalker , please update this part.