Syngenta led initiative to help farmers sell their produce generates INR 4.7 Cr amid COVID-19 pandemic
New Delhi, August 11.2020: The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has created a huge negative impact on the earnings of farmers in Maharashtra as they were unable to sell their harvest due to continuous lockdown. In order to help such farmers, sustain their income, the Syngenta India Limited, Syngenta Foundation India and Agri-Entrepreneur Growth Foundation (AEGF) collaborated to design and launch a set of programs at national level, fetching earnings worth INR 4.87 crores.
At the onset of the lockdown, an initiative was undertaken to provide financial services support to the farmers and underprivileged sections in Bihar through the extensive network of Agri Entrepreneurs (AE). The digital financial transactions worth more that INR 13.5 Lakhs were successfully completed across 10 districts of Bihar, through Spice Money and IDFC tools during March and April, 2020. In collaboration with the state government of Bihar AEs ensured the availability of 13,266 ration cards for families below poverty line. The AEs have helped more than 2,000 women farmers to access their Jan-Dhan accounts and have facilitated 2,000 farmers access PM KISAN, the national direct cash transfer scheme.
Dr KC Ravi 's Chief Sustainability Officer; Syngenta India, said, "Since March 2020 lockdown, our AE's have helped 12,290 smallholder farmers sell 6642 metric tons of produce and have enabled them earn INR 4.87 crores." As part of the program 500 boxes of grapes from Nasik were delivered to housing societies in Pune, transported grapes to Patiala, Punjab, supplied vegetables from Nasik to the e-commerce player, Go4Fresh, dispensed 100 metric tons of maize to online agronomy player Agri-Bazaar in Bihar, sold 10 metric tons of onions in Delgur, traded 70 metric tons onions in Kota, and 42.5 metric tons in Alwar, marketed and sold 301 MT of jackfruit and watermelon in Jharkhand and 10 MT of tea leaves from Assam. Under this project we ensured an efficient sorting and grading mechanism that has helped build more trust between buyers and sellers which has resulted in better prices for the produce.”
Mr Rajendra Jog, CEO, AEGF, said, "The AE program model positions an AE to fully understand the situation and respond quickly and precisely to farmers' agricultural needs, thus providing a high quality of response.”
Launched during 2019, AEGF is a collaboration between Tata Trusts and Syngenta Foundation India, aimed at creating wealth for resource-poor smallholder farmers in India through innovation, sustainable agriculture and by linking them to value chains. The awareness and education program driven by AEGF have so far successfully reached out to more than 15.8 Lakh farmer family members and directly to over 3 Lakh farmers in the states of Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Odisha, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Telangana through a network of 1782 trained agri entrepreneurs (AE).
About Syngenta
Syngenta is a leading agriculture company helping to improve global food security by enabling millions of farmers to make better use of available resources. Through world class science and innovative crop solutions, our 28,000 people in over 90 countries are working to transform how crops are grown. We are committed to rescuing land from degradation, enhancing biodiversity and revitalizing rural communities.
To learn more, visit us at www.syngenta.com, www.syngenta.co.in, Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Syngenta
Media Contact:
Javed Rahmatullah
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E-Mail: javed.rahmatullah@syngenta.com
