Samunnati Inks the MoU with NAFED to support FPOs

Samunnati, India’s largest agri-tech enterprise and Federation of Indian FPOs and Aggregators (one of the subsidiary of NAFED) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to support FPOs. Federation of Indian FPOs and Aggregators (FIFA) is a national level association of more than 100 producer organizations. FIFA primarily works towards sustainability of its member organizations through market linkage and logistical support.

India’s largest agri-tech enterprise, Samunnati is on a mission to create an open agri-network to unlock the trillion-dollar plus potential of Indian agriculture with smallholder farmers at the center of it. Staying true to its name, Samunnati stands for collective growth & collective prosperity for the agri ecosystem.

With the MoU Samunnati would be pursing the following aspects with NAFED to support the FPO ecosystem.

• Financing for FPOs: Samunnati shall be a non-exclusive financier for FIFA member FPOs and will provide customised financial solutions ranging from input loans, procurement loans, loans to farmer members of FPOs, etc. subject to the fulfilment of criteria by the borrowers.
• On-Boarding of FPOs: Samunnati shall facilitate on-boarding of FPOs to become members of FIFA.
• Co-Creation and Alignment of Business Plan: Samunnati shall work with FPOs to help them create a viable business plan which ensures alignment of member farmers.
• Training / Institutional Development: Samunnati shall guide the FPOs through various training modules focused on their capacity building and institutional development.
• Deployment of Samunnati’s FPO Grading and Assessment Tool: Samunnati shall deploy their in-house developed grading and assessment tool to understand the needs of the FPOs to design the interventions accordingly.
• Digitalization Solutions: Samunnati shall deploy their digitalization suite to empower the FPOs and shall also deploy their in-house paycard solution for
• FPO member farmers whereas applicable.
• Technology Interventions through Partners: Samunnati shall bring in technological solutions available through their partners including agtech start-ups to facilitate deployment of such solutions whereas applicable.
• Support to FPOs for availing government grants/schemes: Samunnati will handhold the FPOs to create awareness about available grants and schemes by government departments and will work with FPOs to avail them basis their eligibility.
• Market Linkages: Samunnati and FIFA shall work together in providing market linkages to the member FPOs of FIFA to assist them in procuring of agri inputs as well as in the marketing of their produce to institutional buyers.
• Samunnati to assist FIFA in setting up and operationalising NAFED Electronic Kisan Mandis (“NEKMs”), and in turn assist FPO members in creating physical infrastructure necessary to enable marketing of their produce through NEKMs.

Serving the entire value chain, Samunnati’s Agri Commerce and Agri Finance solutions enable affiliated Farmer Collectives and the larger ecosystem to be more efficient and productive through multiple technology enabled interventions and collaborative partnerships. Headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, Samunnati has presence in more than 100 agri value chains spread over 22 states in India and has powered over $1Bn of gross transaction value in its journey so far. Samunnati currently has access to 1500+ Farmer Collectives with a member base of over 6 million farmers and envisions impacting 1 in every 4 farming households through its network by 2027.