E-commerce major Flipkart has signed an agreement with the Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP), a rural development initiative of Telangana, to help Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) and self-help groups (SHGs) in the State gain access to a pan-India market.
Flipkart would provide the FPOs and SHGs access to its 400 million-strong consumer base, significantly increasing their revenues.
As part of this collaboration, Flipkart will directly source premium quality pulses, millets, staples, and spices from the local farmers, contributing to improved income and business growth.
The MoU was exchanged between Sandeep Kumar Sultania (Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, Govt of Telangana) and Smrithi Ravichandran, Vice-President and Head of Grocery of Flipkart here on Saturday.
Flipkart will also take up capacity-building initiatives to help the members of FPOs and SHGs understand the concepts like quality, pricing and licenses required to be a part of the FPO ecosystem. On its part, SERP will extend support with infrastructure and necessary approvals to take this partnership forward
“This association will help the women SHG members to sell their products to consumers in different parts of the country. There are 4.36 lakh SHGs in the State with an aggregate membership of 46 lakhs members,” Errabelli Dayakar Rao, Telangana Minister for Panchayat Raj and Rural Development, said.
“We have set a target to disburse loans aggregating to ₹500 crore to the SHGs this year,” he said.
“Our customers get an improved experience with direct access to quality produce and fresh groceries from these FPOs in the region. We look forward to creating more such linkages and initiatives for the farming community to help them scale their offerings through technology and e-commerce,” Smrithi Ravichandran said.