Resource detail
Gramin Suvidha Kendra has been designed as a single-window service for all pre-harvest and post-harvest requirements of farmers which works on the principle and belief of shifting farmers from being mere ‘producers’ to now becoming ‘marketers’, through providing them future price signals, so that the farmers become better informed and can make sound business decisions. to India Post’s ubiquitous network of over 155,000 post offices across the country, MCX’s potential to reach out to farmers through GSK has grown exponentially, enabling it to cater to the marketing, warehousing and advisory needs of farmers across India.
Gramin Suvidha Kendra is a revenue generative, scalable, replicable inclusive business model with varied range of operations and an ability to reinvent itself with changing times. Over the time it has strengthened its base, expanded its offerings and has infused professionalism in the role of coordinators by developing reporting schedules, travel itinerary, etc. Process management systems have been put in place to make it easy and simple for rural coordinators. The ‘innovativeness’ of the project lies in its concept: leveraging India’s huge postal network for an activity that is unconventional to a post-office, yet crucial to the nation, i.e., helping deliver socioeconomic justice to the traditionally exploited Indian farmer.
Outcome/Benefits: More than 3400 farmers are registered on the Gramin Suvidha Kendra platform. The programme has created awareness about the availability of a reference price in the market, which enables farmers to better bargain their prices. It has helped farmers to access scientific communities on the problems that they faced in farming to effectively tackle them. Farming community is becoming sensitized to other opportunities to better collateralize their commodities to avoid distress sales immediately post-harvest. This has become a model for agricultural extension for dissemination of agricultural technologies. When farmers see quality produce fetching better prices, it enables them to make a shift to quality agri inputs that increases yield, productivity and quality of the crop.
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