GIC

Green Innovation Centre for the Agriculture and Food Sector, India

Farm Mechanisation – Cycle Weeder and Mechanical Weeder

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Project Info

Goal: Enhance the production, productivity and profitability of farmers across the tomato value chain through promotion and strengthening of Farmer Producer Organisations with special focus on women and youth in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh.

Specific Objective:
• Undertake & up-scale tomato value chain development interventions and innovations in Madanapalle Cluster of Andhra Pradesh
• Provide capacity building and handholding support to 15 FPOs to develop them into viable and sustainable farmer-owned enterprises engaged in tomato value chains
• Scale-up the interventions and innovations taken-up under GIC project to 15,000 farmers (increase the outreach from 10,000 farmers till now to 15,000 farmers)
• Transfer of knowledge, approach and experience of strengthening and achieving sustainability of FPOs across and outside the state of Andhra Pradesh and India

Outreach: 15,000 farmers (9,000 direct and 6,000 indirect)

Period

Phase	Period	Operational Area
Pilot	Sept 2015 – May 2016	Ramasamudaram & V.Kota mandals in Chittoor & Nallamada mandal in Anantapur districts
Phase I	Sept 2016 – Dec 2017	Ramasamudram, Palamaner, Madanapalle & Nimmanapalle mandals in Chittoor district
Phase II	Jan 2018 – Dec 2019	B. Kothakota, Kurbalakota, Mulakalcheruvu mandals in Chittoor district
Phase III	Jan 2020 - Dec 2022	Ramasamudram, Palmaner, Madanapalle, Nimmanapalle, V.Kota, Kalikiri, Vayalapad & Kurabalakota mandals in Chittoor district

Donor: GIZ

Partnership : World Vegetable Centre, DGRV, Departments of Agricultural Marketing, Horticulture & Agriculture etc, APMARKFED, efresh Agri Business Solutions, Sunsip Agro Processors, Coromandel, retailers etc,

Team : Project Director, Director- I&CB, Tomato Value Chain Specialist, Project Managers (3), Technical Coordinators (7), FPO Coordinators (2), MIS Officer (1), Computer Operators (2), Rythu Mithras (32) and part time consultants

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Organic Farming Practices in Madanapalli

Major Activities/ Achievements

Promotion and Strengthening of Farmer Institutions

• Established GIC Offices in Madanapalle, Ramasamudram, Nimmanapalle and Palamaner and placed Project Director, Managers, Tomato Value Chain Specialist, Technical Coordinators, FPO Coordinators, Computer Operators, MIS Officer and Rythu Mithras (34).
• Good rapport established with the farmers and the line departments through awareness programs, campaigns and celebration of events such as Sankaranti Sambaralau, Janmbhoomi – Mana Vooru, International Women’s Day, Environment Day and entry point activities
• Organised 6 trainings on Best Practices in Tomato cultivation, nurseries, tomato value chain, and 2 exposure visits to IIHR, hi-tech horticulture in AP for the pro-active farmers, RMs and staff on role & responsibilities and structure & functions of FPOs.
• Mobilised 5073 farmers (37.4% (1902) are women farmers) into farmers’ groups with a share capital and membership fee of Rs.5073000 and 507300 respectively
• 3 FPOs (Madanapalle, Nimmanapalle, Palamaner) are registered under companies Act and Ramasamudram FPO is registered under APMACS Act.
• 35 GRSs are formed in four mandals and 25 of them are registered under APMACS Act.
• Prepared and disseminated resource materials to farmer institutions and staff - reference guidelines for Rythu Sangams on conduct of meetings & maintenance of books; role & responsibilities of Rythu Mithras, training material on Tomato Package of Practices, pamphlet on farmer groups, Grama Rythu Samakhyas and FPOs.
• Organised National level workshop on ‘Farmer Producer Organisations and Tomato Value Chain’ in collaboration with GIZ, Dept. of Horticulture (GoAP), World Vegetable Centre and IRMA.
• Entered into MoU with ‘e-Fresh’ for Ramasamudram FPO and established Farmer Development Centre (FDC) to provide input services to farmers.
• All the FPOs obtained license for fertilizers sale. Ramasamudram FPO is in process of obtaining license for pesticides sale.
• Equity grant proposals for all the 4 FPOs are submitted to Dept. of Horticulture (Andhra Pradesh) based on the three year business plans developed.
• Vehicle proceedings for FPOs received with the support of Dept. of Horticulture for collective marketing operations. Vehicle of Palamaner FPO is in operation for collective marketing of vegetables
• Through Farmer Field Schools, trainings and exposures, about 4062 farmers and staff were trained on land preparation, production management, irrigation methods, organic farming, pheromone traps, nursery management, tomato value chain, governance, business plan etc.
• Successfully facilitated training and exposure visit on preparation of bio pesticides, bio fungicides, bio fertilizers at NIPHM (National Institute of Plant Health Management, Hyderabad) for all Rythu mitras (Green Agents) and farmer representatives of GRSs.
• Successfully organised training on drip irrigation to the Rythu Mitras, and farmer representatives of GRSs wherein 55 members were trained by external resource persons. APMAS successfully conducted training and exposure visit to 24 nursery owners on best practices in nursery management.

Collective Procurement and Marketing Activities:

• Turnover of Rs. 3.91 crore was achieved by all 34 GRSs by selling various fertilizers and cattle feed. All the GRSs are using Green Innovation Fund as source for collective procurement of cattle feed and fertilizers.
• Collective marketing of vegetables was undertaken by FPOs of Palamaner, Nimmanapalle and Madanapalle with BigBasket, WayCool, Metro Cash & Carry and local market during June 2018- Dec 2018 for total worth of Rs.358531.
• Nimmanapalle FPC started collective marketing of Paddy and sold 30 MT in three transactions of sales at the value of Rs.5,90,826.
• Madanapalle FPC kick-started organic vegetables marketing from Rythu Bazar with total sales value of Rs. 36434.
• Terminal and retail markets and online platforms are being explored to increase the scope of collective marketing by FPOs.
• Negotiations are under progress with Sunsip Processing Company in order to supply processing varieties of vegetables.

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Innovations

• Grading of 39 tomato nurseries conducted based on Grading Tool developed by MAS team – One nursery given A grade, Five given B Grade and 33 given C Grade.
• Four model nurseries are being promoted so far and efforts are underway to promote eight model nurseries in the four Mandals of GIC project.
• 54 demo plots are being promoted so far and efforts are underway to promote another 30 demo plots during phase II.
• Package of practices from land preparation to soil and water conservation, irrigation techniques, production improvement techniques are being adopted by the demo farmers and the progressive farmers in each Mandal.
• Initiated organic farming and NPM practices with majority farmers in Ankisettypalle GRS at Madanapalle.
• Implementing pilot production trials on Tomato processing Hybrids in collaboration with Sunsip Agro Processors, Orbi Seed International and GIZ in Ramasamudram Mandal.
• Field Grown Tomatoes – Production Guide and Manual on nursery management of Tomato Seedlings were developed in collaboration with World Vegetable Centre and GIZ.
• Trainings and communication material were developed in Telugu on package of practices in Tomato Cultivation, Model Vegetable Nursery manual, Bye-Laws of Village level Institutions.
• Farmer Resource Centre is established at Madanapalle Tomato Market Yard in collaboration with Agriculture marketing department. The centre provides bulk SMS services on tomato prices in the district to 1800 farmer members.
• Partnership established with the World Veg Centre as a technical agency for necessary support in tomato nursery management and production techniques.
• Established partnership with DGRV, Germany to enable farmers’ institutions into self-reliant organizations.
• Established partnership with agriculture and horticulture departments and leveraged various schemes to the farmers and also resource persons to interact with the farmers and staff during trainings and convergence meetings.
• Established collaboration with the Krishi Vignan Kendra, Kalikiri in conducting trainings and crop advisory services.
• Established collaboration with IRMA in conducting value chain studies and advising on value added interventions and collectively taking up advocacy for policy influencing
• Three day National Workshop on FPOs and Tomato Value Chain conducted by APMAS with Horticulture Department, IRMA, NIRD in Tirupathi in Oct 2018 resulted in establishing state level committee on tomato value chain by Govt. of Andhra Pradesh.
• Meetings held with Secretary, MoFPI and CEO APFPS, AP on implementation of Operation Green scheme in Tomato Clusters and DPR prepared and proposal submitted to MoFPI

Material Development

• Tomato Early Blight Pamphlet
• Tomato Late Blight Pamphlet
• Tomato Package of Practices
• Tomato Powdery Mildew Pamphlet
• Dos & Don'ts in Vegetable Nursery Management
• Pest & Disease Management for Tomato Crop (Telugu)
• Capacity Building of Board of Directors of Farmers Producer Organizations (FPOs)

Challenges and Constraints

• High expectation of the farmers and lack of adequate interest in taking responsibilities
• High fluctuations in tomato prices
• Farmers not willing to cultivate processing varieties and lack of proper understanding and
• collaboration between farmers and processing industries
• Focus on single commodity whereas farmers need comprehensive services for different crops grown
• Delay in getting sanction for the government programmes and schemes
• More focus required to bring women farmers to the forefront
• Dearth of qualified and experienced staff

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Way Forward

Plan to reach 15,000 farmers i.e. 9000 farmers directly and 6000 farmers indirectly by the end of phase iII in high tomato growing mandals of Chittoor district and strengthen FPOs as self-reliant institutions to take up agri-business and value chain interventions in a successful manner. Create models and demonstrate innovations in terms of partnerships, adaptation of technologies & value-added interventions to enable farmers for moving ahead along the value chain, negotiating strongly with the government and other stakeholders for necessary support and assertion of their rights and entitlements.

• V Kota Mandala Agriculture Producers Mutually Aided Cooperative Federation Ltd
• Kalikiri Farmer Producers Mutually Aided Cooperative Society Limited
• Ramasamudram Mandala Agriculture Producers Mutually Aided Cooperative federation Ltd
• Kurabalakota Women Farmer Producers Mutually Aided Cooperative Society Limited
• Koundinya Farmers Producer Company Ltd
• M-Tomato Farmers Producer Company Limited
• Nimmanapalle Farmers Producer Company Ltd
• Maryada Ramanna Patnam Farmers Producer Company Ltd