Farmer Development Centre
Aligned with our mission to make markets work for smallholder farmers, Samunnati in partnership with eFresh Agribusiness Solutions Pvt Ltd. inaugurated 14 FDCs in Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Rajasthan. A SMART and Sustainable farming platform, FDC is listed as one of the four innovations by Green Innovation Center, an initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, and German cooperation.
Farmer Development Centre (FDC) is a physical store that is set up at the Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) premises under the franchise business model as a one-stop solution for all farmers’ needs. The model leverages the power of aggregation to make available high-quality products at the right time and economical prices. The technology infrastructure & digitization drive efficiency, ease of doing business at the store level & opportunity to leverage the benefits of analytics for the system as a whole.
FDCs enhance the learning ecosystem for the farmers through the ‘model farmer initiative’ & advisory services through its partners. It extends its coverage to subsume, farm output market linkages, farm machinery, insurance & other value-added services.
FDC is owned, operated, and managed by FPO. While eFresh facilitate the procurement of quality inputs from leading brands and manufacturers based on the demand of the FDCs. Samunnati strengthens the FDCs by providing financing, market linkages, advisory services, and the introduction of advanced technologies through its AMLA [Aggregation, Market Linkage and Advisory] Approach.
Overall, the benefits to FPOs through FDCs are as follows.
- Customized Software for digitization of data & records, Statutory compliances
- Spreading Good Agricultural practices through model farmers program
- FPO Team can focus more on identification and provision of value-added services
- Enhanced farm output market linkages through traceability and quality specifications
- Additional income generation through farm machinery hiring, insurance, and other digital services linkages
