Saharapada Pilot Learnings

While we have the program level Learning Questions here, will be useful to reflect on the Odisha pilot specifically. This is my take based on convos with the team, requesting @Chandan Dash (Unlicensed) @Ronali Pradhan (Unlicensed) @ashok @Amrita Das (Unlicensed) @Gautam Mandewalker and others who have spent time w Saharapada to add their thoughts as well.

As of Sep 7 2022

What’s working?

• Nursery is operational. We decided to proceed in May and the nursery has been operational since July 26. It has a capacity to raise ~2 lakh saplings in one batch and as of Sep 7, FPO has raised __ saplings, sold ___ and realized ___ in revenue.

• FPO directors want to digitize information contained in their registers so they have easy access to certain queries / analytics to manage their biz (total intent, advanced payments received, etc.) and share information with shareholders which is currently difficult for them to do

• FPO is seeking working capital to scale nursery operations; previously the FPO was wary of taking on any debt so this is an important development that shows growing confidence / maturity / commercial sensibility

• FPO feels it has a compelling offer for farmers (soil-less saplings at cheap rate) and can grow is shareholder base (which has been flat at ~500 members for the past few years; they want to grow to 1500 in the near future)

• FPO realized cost savings on inputs by aggregating member demand through KDE and purchasing in bulk from larger dealers in Bhubaneswar. Examples:

  • Seeds: 350-400 vs. 550

  • Vermi-compost 72 per kg vs 220

Challenges

• Churn: CEO resigned end of Aug (CYSD working on replacement), 1 of the 2 Data Officers (who was external to the FPO) left and needs to be replaced

• We still don’t have a business plan that can be leveraged for loan applications. We have developed a “roles and responsibilities” sheet for future pilot where we will spell out who does what more clearly as our expectation was that resource agency (CYSD in this case); will be helpful to make this explicit going forward.

• Data officers are using physical registers; getting this digitized is taking time. DG providing laptop to data officers.

• The BoDs are doing all the work in the nursery instead of monitoring the progress, sales , cash flow etc. There is no one from the FPO or from CYSD to monitor financial transactions. BODs doubling up as data officers is not a good strategy.

• Structure: BoD members who carry the responsibility and doing bulk of the work in this setup are not paid. The only paid member, CEO, was not fully involved that led to a weak structure.

What’s Next

• Help FPO apply for Mission Shakti loan and SFAC matching grant

• Avail 40% subsidy on hybrid tomato seeds purchased for nursery from DoH (~1 lakh total spend)

• FPOs helps shareholder farmers avail 5,000 payment from DoH for cultivating vegetables

• FPO captures intent for next batch of saplings (sowing date mid September so need to start capturing intent ASAP)

• Demonstrate value of data for offtake (tomato heat map)

• MEL team will do an impact assessment in November.

• Help FPO produce a marketing video for membership drive

• Figure out an “exit strategy.” When do we stop providing so much hand holding? When does this pilot end and what continuing support do we provide? Lets use end of year as a forcing function; where do we want to be by then?