Action Learning Case Study on an apple project in Uttarkhand, North India

What: A cooperative of apple farmers

When: April 5-11, 2009

With: Shri Jagdamba Samithi (SJS)

Background

The apple project consists of four decentralised apple collection centres. Farmers are encouraged to join a cooperative, through which they can process and sell their produce jointly at better prices. The goal of the project is to facilitate a process of empowerment among small-scale apple farmers in order to promote sustainable socio-economic development through promotion of a value-addition business chain, owned and led by farmers themselves.

SJS launched this project with the realisation that small farmers in a market-oriented agribusiness get further marginalised mainly due to the dominance of mandis, a chain of well-organised intermediaries who control the entire process from credit supply for farm inputs, transportation and marketing of produce. The apple project hence strives to create a model of business-driven, decentralised independent and small-scale production with coordinated arrangements for processing and marketing by providing technical, managerial and investment support to enable farmers collectively to move up the value chain. The ‘collective’ feature of the business model is promoted to save individual time, distribute risk, maintain price assurance, pursue damage control and save on handling costs such as storage and transportation.