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As the lockdown disrupts the supply chain and farmers are saddled with mangoes, a JICA-supported initiative, ‘Farm to Family’, is attempting to reduce their woes by connecting them with consumers in Hyderabad’s gated communities.
Mangoes will be collected directly at the farm gate and supplied to the consumers in a few select townships and gated communities in Hyderabad.
Though the farmers witnessed good production in some areas, they are not in a position to harvest it as the regular traders have not shown interest because of the supply chain disruptions and closure of markets across States due to the nationwide lockdown.
“In this backdrop, the project officials and the E&Y LPP team devised an innovative way to ease the supply chain bottleneck. The plan would let the farmers get their share of income and the consumers get the summer fruit,” a project executive said.
E&Y LPP is the consultant for implementation of pilot value chain development of selected crops under the project.
The team partnered with a farmer producers’ organisation (FPO) named ‘Reddygudem Mandal Farmers Producers Company Limited’, which has 350 farmers as members to launch this initiative.
“We are teaching farmers selective harvesting, where they pluck only those mangoes that are ripe,” Bhojraju, a senior consultant at E&Y LLP, said.
The initiative is being taken up under the Andhra Pradesh Irrigation and Livelihood Improvement Project (Phase 2), which is financed by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The Water Resources Department (WRD), Department of Horticulture and Andhra Pradesh Food Processing Society are also involved in the initiative.
The project is aimed at increasing the local farm productivity, enhance marketing capacity and supporting integrated farming systems under the FPO umbrella.
A State government official said the farmers are happy as they are able to save money on transportation, loading and unloading charges.
Launched on April 12, 2020, in three gated communities. About three tonnes of mangoes were sold and orders aggregating 10 tonnes of mangoes have been booked at 12 gated communities.
The officials are going to continue with the initiative even after the lifting of the lockdown.
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