Plans for my latest Initiative

Background:

Farming community in India primarily constitutes small and marginal farmers who have limited resources viz. land and 3Ms (manpower, money & material) at their disposal. Even after 60 years of Independence, farming is an unorganized sector in India. Despite Govt. grants and subsidies the sector has not been able to be self- reliant.The following approach is an attempt to make the sector self- reliant.

Approach:

1. Community farming :

• Transform smaller holdings into large tracts of farming through participation
• Enhance collective bargain power of resources (implements, seeds & fertilizer, produce etc)
• Have limited exposure to liability on individuals, thereby minimize debt trap

2 Community Development

a. Collective savings leading to self – sustenance in the longer run

b. Usage of IT to enhance growth

Framework

The framework’s foundation is collective participation by all land holders just like the shareholders of a public limited firm. This model will have least interference from the Govt. The major functions to be but, not limited to

• Identifying & agreement on tracts of land for community farming
• Shareholders/ Landholders to contribute and build common kitty to carry out collective activities on a proportionate basis. One vote per share.
• Build pay as you use model for 3 Ms.
• Manpower: The landless within the community will be assured of regular work. The return to be partly monetary and partly share of produce.
• Material: Capital equipments (tractors, automated implements) can be procured through collective collaterals, if necessary. Usage of equipments will strictly be on payment by the user community. Essentially, certain portion of charge levied will be ploughed back into the common kitty to build fund.Collective bargaining: Right from negotiations on raw material cost and other enablers upto go to market stage, the farmers will have a better saying.
• Money:Less dependency on lenders ( individuals, banks, credit society etc)
• Limited liability on individual: Low exposure as the load is distributed
• Risk coverage: Value proposition to insurance firms for higher risk coverage on collective produce
• Micro credit financing: Non-farming sector resources ( residing in the area) can also be a beneficiary – creation of wealth through involvement. For eg. Bamboo works, pottery, poultry, dairy farming etc.

Where IT can play a role

• Improving farmer knowledge about Offers by various parties so that unscrupulous middle men who pocket most of the benefits can be done away with.
• Improving access to correct and reliable information about Agricultural Best Practices.
• Developing a Mechanism where a Farmer can transact Online throughout the Farming Cycle starting from purchase of equipment, seeds etc to sale of agricultural product.