For 56-year old Subrata Ghosh from village Garbeta in Bengal’s Medinipur district, it was a dream come true on Saturday.
Ghosh, who has been a contract potato farmer for PepsiCo India for the last nine years, was invited to watch the IPL (Indian Premier League) match between Kolkata Knight Riders and the Chennai Super Kings at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.
“I have always yearned to watch a match at Eden Gardens. I am very happy and excited to be here today,” Ghosh said, his face glowing with joy.
About 100 farmers across the country have been sponsored by PepsiCo India, the title sponsor of the IPL, to watch some matches live. Of those invited, nearly half are from Bengal.
Under the “collaborative farming” arrangement with Pepsico, potato farmers sow the “Atlanta” and “Chipsona” varieties — commonly referred as Pepsi Alu — that are used to make Frito-Lay branded products. The company works with over 24,000 farmers across nine States. Of these, 12,000 farmers are from Bengal, the largest procurement region for PepsiCo.
Assured returns
The extreme volatility in potato prices over the last three years seems to have convinced an increasingly large section of growers in the State to accept a steady return through contract farming rather than risk their investments in the hope of an elusive windfall gain.
“I have been growing the Pepsi potatoes for the past seven years. Though I do not stand to make huge profits, it gives a steady return, unlike the usual variety (Jyoti) which is subject to lot of price fluctuations,” said Dilip Sardar, a 32-year-old farmer from Burdwan.
Win-Win
According to Jaideep Bhatia, vice-president, Agronomy, PepsiCo India, sponsoring farmers to IPL matches was a way of rewarding their commitment and hard work.
The company plans to scale up the share of contract farming in the days to come. Contract or “collaborative” farming currently accounts for nearly half the company’s total requirement. The rest is met through open market purchases.
PepsiCo prefers contract farming as it gives the company better control on both quality and costs, apart from ensuring availability, Bhatia said.
“As soon as there is an improvement in seed availability, we would like to increase the share of collaborative farming,” Bhatia said.