Enhancing capacities of FPOs towards developing climate resilient agri-business models and business plans

Uttar Pradesh

For Grameen Foundation India Year: 2024   Grameen Foundation India is a non-profit organization that designs and implements innovative programs to facilitate access to finance, livelihood opportunities, and health and nutrition information among low-income communities. GFI addresses both demand-side and supply-side barriers through scalable models, technology applications, and innovative partnerships. Grameen Foundation India is involved in a project called Market Access enabled by Digital Innovation (MANDI) in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, India. The project aims to support 40 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) by enhancing their capacity through effective business planning and climate resilience practices to improve farmers’ incomes. In collaboration with Samavit, GFI seeks to build the capacity of hub-level FPOs to develop their own business plans using FAO’s business planning software, Rural Invest. Additionally, the organization aims to develop a climate-resilient plan tailored to the specific needs of each hub FPO. Following were the project objectives:
  • To conduct workshops for capacity building of participant FPOs by providing hands-on training in FAO’s business planning software, Rural Invest (RIV).
  • To enhance the knowledge of FPOs regarding climate-resilient agricultural practices and how these can be integrated into FPOs’ business operations.
  • To provide ongoing support to 8 hub FPOs in preparing their business plans using the FAO-recommended RIV software following the workshop.
  • To prepare business and climate resilience plan for 8 hub FPOs which were further integrated with 32 spoke FPOs.
  • To conduct field visits to 4 different FPOs to gain a clear understanding of their business operations.
The project rollout involved the following major steps:
  • Inception Meeting: An initial meeting was conducted with the Grameen Foundation team to align objectives, work plan and business plan report format.
  • Pre-Workshop Virtual Calls: A virtual call was conducted with the FPOs to inform them about the required information they needed to provide to Samavit in order to prepare a detailed business plan for the FPOs.
  • Module Design: Developed a framework for designing modules for FPOs business planning using FAO RIV software and climate resilient practices which could be integrated with FPOs business operations.
  • Workshop: A three-day workshop on business and climate-resilient planning was conducted for FPOs, where hands-on training in FAO’s business planning software was provided to the participants. The FPOs were also informed about climate-resilient practices.
  • Field visit: A visit to four FPOs was conducted to gain a better understanding of their business operations.
Samavit team conducted a three-day workshop in Varanasi with participants from various FPOs to provide hands-on training in FAO’s Rural Invest (RIV) software, enhancing the FPOs’ capacity in business planning and climate-resilient practices. Following the workshop, a one-day field visit to four FPOs was conducted to gain a better understanding of their business models at the ground level. Samavit then provided ongoing support to the hub-level FPOs through virtual calls, focusing on the use of Rural Invest. Finally, Samavit presented a detailed business and climate-resilient plan for the 8 hub-level FPOs to the Grameen Foundation team and submitted five case studies in a report format, highlighting the various challenges encountered in developing business plans for different types of FPOs and the strategies employed to overcome these challenges.