The UN Industrial Development Organisation (Unido) and the Kudumbashree State Mission for poverty eradication and women empowerment have decided to expand cooperation in the development of agri-business value chains. Farm experts from Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia and Sri Lanka had flown down to take part in a workshop at Thanneermukkom, a remote village in Alappuzha district, to pick a few lessons about various value chains practised by local women groups.

FUTURE COLLABORATION

Unido and the Kudumbashree have decided to pursue opportunities of future collaboration in fruits and vegetables processing, setting up of training centres and development of training and entrepreneurship curricula. The international workshop on ‘Analysis and design of pro-poor value chain development projects in Asia'' was held from March 1 to 4 with financial support from the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Thirty delegates representing the participating countries learned about the ‘Marari mushroom' value chain development project run by Kudumbashree, an official spokesman said here.

MILKY MUSHROOMS

This is an initiative where women groups engage in production of mushrooms under controlled environments, a process that requires technical skills and inputs and made available by the Tropical Botanical gardens and Research Institute of India. The product, ‘milky mushrooms,' is marketed through the Marari Marketing Company owned by the community groups.

The second value chain to be featured was of garments, in which Kudumbashree supported garment production and marketed through a community-owned company. These projects have helped to improve the livelihoods of more than 600 women across various districts in Kerala, the spokesman said.

UNIQUE EXPERTISE

“Unido has been keen to understand the Kudumbashree model that manifests unique expertise in community development and poverty eradication, particularly among rural women,” said Mr Frank Hartwich of the agri-business unit of Unido. This is an important ingredient in support programmes which should not only focus on efficiency in business and chain organisations but also design programmes that benefit the poor and vulnerable members of the rural society, particularly women.

PRACTITIONER'S GUIDE

The workshop also produced a practitioners' guide on ‘Pro-poor agro value chain development: 25 guiding questions for successful project design and implementation.'

Mr T. Vijaya Kumar, Joint Secretary, SGSY (Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojna) and Mission Director, National Rural Livelihoods Mission, inaugurated the workshop in the presence of Mr Antonios Levissianos of the Unido Regional Office in New Delhi, and Ms Sarada Muraleedharan, Executive Director, Kudumbashree.

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