Women run Paddy Seedling Factory

Capacity building of village women has led to transformation of profession from unskilled laborer to skilled agripreneaur through establishment of SEEDLING FACTORY. Capacity building, generation of functional supply chain, to sink( here end user is the farmer who directly or indirectly transplants paddy through paddy transplanter to save time ,money and get at least 20 % yield advantage)with proper placement of suitable machinery. 4 row and 6 row paddy transplanter, through CHC or individual owner farmer, training of the transplanter driver and mechanic through functional dealer chain, convergence with different Government scheme has led to formation of the structure of this success.

The built in capacity of women farmers has helped them to be sufficiently self reliant to understand & operate the business of SEEDLING FACTORY in a steadily growing manner being part of a SEEDLING HUB setting in REALISTIC TIME FRAME WITH PROPER SPACE.

•Traditional agricultural practices was followed with little or no training

•Funding available to government for agricultural research and extension  limited

Women were never acknowledged as farmers and their social status remains the worst

•Markets are too poorly developed to attract major private sector investment

•Women and men farmers had little access to essential input and output markets and services to  help them adopt appropriate technologies

•Less productivity and incomes

•No connect to financial services, including savings, credit and insurance (nothing that remittances flow despite these challenges)

•Post-harvest storage and processing facilities and output purchasing.

CAFSPL is a one stop enterprise for the farmer/rural entrepreneurs in agriculture and allied sector. Following are the basket of services:

•Paid Training

•Soil Testing (Tied up with Mahindra Samridhi)

•Farm equipment- rent and sale (Yanmar Coromandel, Mahindra Rise, Southern Agro, National Agro –dealers in North Bengal)

•Allied Sector Hub – Mission Egg & Meat – Production Chain established for Fishery, various Poultry and Duck – In-House

•Market linkage and aggregation for better pricing, Processing of Maize through Schiller Machine already established for value addition) Carried out 300 quintal of wheat and 100 quintals of Maize aggregation

• e-Krishi Samadhan Franchise established and already 5 Franchises created – expanding in a big way in North Bengal

• Facilitated  in setting up of almost 1000 rural entrepreneurs spread across North Bengal 

The dream of socio–economic empowerment of women will not be complete without empowering those who are living at India's last periphery. These are the women farmers of India, whose voices often go unheard owing to their gender, and who struggle to establish their identity at a grassroots level due to patriarchal traditions and gender socialization. Women’s work in agriculture is in addition to her role as a wife, a daughter-in-law and as a mother. However, gender based discrimination continues in multiple ways: women are not recognized as farmers in Indian policies thereby denying them of institutional supports of the bank, insurance, cooperatives, and government departments.

Women Agriculture Enterprise – CAFSPL has formed women agri enterprises in Coochbehar district which are managed by women.  All of them have started with Rice Seedling factory and the farmers who would like to use their services are given support in terms of transplanting the Rice and also taking up farming by charging the landowner through rental services of farm equipments. They are also creating clusters for cultivation of other produces and generating business of end to end farming (Supported by CAFSPL) through a profit sharing model.

The alignment of the intervention is in terms of the initiative being a game changer not only in Coochbehar but in entire West Bengal in terms of women being recognized as farmers. A large number of women in this project are now farming full time and are also taking decisions in terms of what to farm, usage of inputs, which technology to use and marketing. This has activated more women who are now getting mainstreamed in the agriculture activities thereby initiating empowerment of women in agriculture and enhancing incomes substantially. The CASI technology also reduce the Carbon footprints substantially.

The Mat Paddy Seedling Factory model and the RTP Rental model is the most unique and innovative model not only in the region but in the entire country. This model is the best in any paddy region in the world and promotes village women as agriculture entrepreneurs who can easily create a business venture out of it.

The Rice Transplanters (RTP) are available with the various service providers which these women can hire on rent and earn from both the mat paddy seedlings and the hiring by farmers in the region.

It is a win win situation for all the stakeholders as the farmer at a lesser cost, less time and judicious use of inputs are able to get more production thereby increasing their incomes. The women earn through their services and production of mat seedlings. 

The technology is creating paddy seedlings in mat shapes on trays of 1x2 feet and rolling them as mats. These mats then are ytransported to the farmers field on any vehicle. The Rice Transplanter is a technology which is under Conservation Technology and is gaining popularity and adaptation all over.

The technology is simple but the rental model is unique.

There are already 10 such women entrepreneurs in Coochbehar Block I and they have started earning since last 4 seasons. the economics is all in place. Enclosing a story  

https://www.cimmyt.org/news/west-bengal-agri-entrepreneur-a-role-model-for-farmers-in-her-community/

Enclosing the LFA as an attachment as a JPG

Currently serving 20000 farmers. In next year it will be 30000 and we expect in 5 years it will be 200000.

Impact Goal: Adoption of Conservation Agriculture Technology and modern practices of Animal Husbandry for climate change mitigation, agro-biodiversity conservation and sustainable use and improved agricultural production and livestock, leading to increased food security, improved rural livelihoods and profitable rural enterprises for rural women collectives.

Activity 1. Training services to build capacities of women entrepreneurs to adopt new technology, processes and practices.

Activity 2. Linking the collectives (FPOs, SHGs) with Department of Agriculture, Uttar Banga Krishi Vishwavidyalaya, Krishi Vigyan Kendra, Department of Animal Husbandry, Department of Fisheries and other line departments

Activity 2.1 Creation of Seedling factory and other Agri Business and Allied Sector /Animal Husbandry Services after assessing the value chain

Activity 2.2 Creation of Women Entrepreneurs'  and women collective run Enterprises

Activity 3.3 Credit and Financial linkage with Banks, MFIs etc.

Absence of serious environmental events (drought leading to food shortage, flooding), crop and livestock (pests and diseases) shocks in project countries.    

Policy level changes for SHGs affect them in terms of financing

Changes in the Policy making under Companies Act by Ministry of Corporate Affairs  

The barriers barring natural disasters will not be there at all as the rural women agri entrepreneurs are increasing manifolds as the initiative has major economic gains and win win for all the stakeholders 

The solution is a part of the organization called Coochbehar Agri & Fisheries Services PVT Ltd which is a start up and works more like a Social Enterprise in the area of agriculture and allied sectors.

The primary customers are farmers and rural entrepreneurs 

A Total of 5 people with 3 Directors work in this venture

Our Team Comprises of: A champion—a leader who pushes through no matter what;

 A core group of team members—five resources who have on an average more than 10 years of experience in the sector;

 The Team has skill sets – formulating business plan, strong proposal and bid preparation writer, production, purchasing, and sales experts and personnel & financial management experts and a senior IT professional who has knowledge of cloud and MIS.

We are the dealers of some top Agriculture and Allied Corporate as Business Partners.

Mahindar Rise, Godrej Agrovet Pvt Ltd (GAVL), Yanmar Coromandel and others.

We are also working with International agencies like ACIAR, CIMMYT, Australian High Commission and also with the Government Departments and Agriculture Universities

Setting up the start up was based on a consortium of 5-6 key suppliers (like machinery, fertilizer, seed, plant protection, rural finance) – Most of the players are already in place. This company has already created franchisee of Farmer Service Centre to local entrepreneurs operating in interior areas at the block level.  We are planning to scale up the aggregation and value addition and marketing so as to increase the profitability.

CAFSPL already created Farmer Producer Organizations/Companies (33) and 5 franchises which are acting as Service Providers or Franchise. We also have individual entrepreneurs who are part of the distribution model.  

There are two specific reasons. 1. Looking for capital Infusion and 2. To promote this model across the globe which are largely paddy areas which will lead to more women getting into agriculture entrepreneurship and driving businesses which are profitable and sustainable.

We are looking not only in terms of funding but also to create scaling out in other countries where rural women can benefit immensely. 

We would love to partner with with MIT faculty and also Solve Members. We would also like t Solve to take our model to the top agriculture corporate in the world as it benefits them too.

This entire innovative project is meant for rural women and their economic and social empowerment