The Hindu Business Line : Linking farms and corporates

Chennai, Oct 3 There have been some splendid examples of what happens when those living at the very beginning of the process of value addition meet collaborate with those living at the very end. The results are invariably spectacular.

For some time now, some 40 groups of mango-growing farmers have been supplying large corporates with mango as raw material directly to ensure better returns for their produce. This year, members of the ‘Aaharam programme’ have gone a step ahead and have leased a pulp-making unit to value-add to their produce. This producer company is dealing with Parle and Nadukkara Agro Processing of Kerala, among others.

Similarly, the herb gatherers and cultivators around Madurai have launched and successfully manage the Grama Mooligai Company Ltd, which supplies to Himalaya Drugs, Dabur, CavinKare and many other herbal product manufacturers for over four years now. This community institution has also started locally manufacturing certain herbal remedies and markets it under the banner Village Herbs.

There are several more examples, but unfortunately, these success stories are sporadic and random happenstances, more by individual will and effort than by a system. And a system we must have if inclusive growth is the ultimate goal.

Indeed, efforts towards this end have also been happening. One such effort is ‘Community Access’, a forum for creative engagement between corporates and community organisations. Community Access was formally launched in Chennai on October 2. At the launch function, it was observed that the growth of micro-finance and access to higher credit for rural women’s groups has empowered them with the capacity to launch larger enterprises. Where these enterprises are rooted in traditional skills and based on local resources, they provide the community institutions with a competitive advantage.

Such locally rooted livelihood ventures reverse rural migration. When such ventures can value-add and tie up with larger corporates, they generate surpluses that bring in much-needed investments into the rural areas.

Community Access has been promoted by Samanvaya Consulting, Chennai, Covenant Centre for Development which is a Madurai-based NGO and LEAD India, New Delhi. Samanvaya ( www.samanvaya.com ) has been providing consulting services for community-based organisations to develop sustainable rural livelihoods for a decade.

Community Access will help creation of more farmer-corporate linkages such as Aaharam.

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