SEWA field visit 1.8.22
- ashok
@Ashu Sikri (Unlicensed) @Vineet Singh @rikin (Unlicensed) @Ravi Shankar Sharma (Unlicensed) @Ravi Shankar Sharma (Unlicensed)
@Amrita Das (Unlicensed)
Aapti would share the notes separately.
Vineet and Ravi, please add your observations.
Megha women cooperative – Established in 2015
Location -Vyara, Gujarat. ( 65 kms from Surat)
Number of Shareholders -1001
Last year turn over-22 Lakhs
Board- 14 members including Pramukh.
Supporting staff- Assistant Manager to take of accounts and Admin.
Field level support staff – Santhlik Saathis ( 1 per 10 villages) and their role is to coordinate with BoDs and members. Aagewan ( 1 to 3 per village)-They directly interface with the members and they collect information from the members /farmers.
Business support staff- All from Sewa (there is a separate vertical for Agribusiness development) lead by Jigna Ben. An Agri graduate continuously supports the cooperative at the field level.
Data Management- Cooperative has maintained all its sales data on google sheets. (one sheet per business- This has farmer details, contact details, and sales details. Sewa would share sample data with us. This is maintained by the Assistant Manager of the cooperative.
Sewa has created an online portal Samarth (yet to be launched) for a few selected products
10. Sewa is working with 110 cooperatives.
We focussed our detailed discussions around the top 3 priorities of the Megha cooperative.
Business activities | Service providers | Description -Business description -Scale -What is working well -What is not working well -Inferences for us |
Turdal Marketing | -Traders -Retailers -Sewa Federation -KVK | -Business description - Procurement, packing and marketing of Tur Dal ( Arhar) Scale-2 tons, What worked well-Packaging and Quality testing) introduction of moisture meter What did not work well-Procurement from the vendors instead of farmers, Quality assurance ( in the initial stage), Not able to procure Tur from the farmers in time. Inferences for us – Megha needs visibility to the production side so as to enable them to procure Tur dal from its members. Most of the members cultivate Tur dal.
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Paddy seeds supply + Vegetables seed supply | -Farmer -Aagewan -Patiar Agro ( supply) -Seed corporation ( Supply) -Rice research Institute ( Supply) | Business description- Supply of seeds to its members. Sold through KSKs ( there are two KSKs as of now and they want to establish 3 more KSKs) Scale - 350 farmers ( including Non members) have procured 8500 Kgs of seeds. What worked well-Negotiation with the supplier ( esp with Patidar for return of unsold seeds) , Maintaining stock, High sales , Role (indent collection and seeds supply ) of Aagewan. What did not work well- Purchase from the retailers, not able to get supply in time. Inferences for us- Megha needs visibility to the aggregated input demand well in advance to negotiate with the suppliers ( Megha wants to work with the seed producers directly). KSKs might want to collect indent from the farmers to supply well in time. They need visibility to the Paddy seeds indent by April for the sowing in July/August.
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Tarpaulin Supply |
| -Megha procured 7 lakhs worth of Tarpaulins on the day of our visit. ( for the harvest season) |
Poultry | -Sewa Federation -Chikli Poultry -Kalamkui -Nadia | Scale-261 farmers as of date, with the average size of 30 birds per farmer. They want to expand this activity with another 500 farmers. Business description -Supply of Chicks and Poultry feed to the members What worked well-Low maintenance (convenience) , Readily available market for Chicken What did not work well- High input cost of Chicks and feed, Low/No working capital, Inferences for us- Cooperative is interested in promoting individual poultry units. Setting up Feed making unit or Chicks supply unit might be good initiatives to reduce input cost. They roughly quoted an estimation of Rs 35Lakhs to promote poultry units for 500 individual households.
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Mushroom Cultivation |
| No significant role by the FPO |
Agri Equipment’s |
| Supply of cycle weeders to its members |
Ayurvedic Medicine sale |
| Does sales at KSKs ( Produced by other cooperative) |
Soil testing ( IFFCO) |
| Service by the cooperative for its members @Rs 20 per test |
Biofertilizer marketing |
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