Walmart Foundation has invested $2 million in an Icrisat project to support 6,000 small farmers in Andhra Pradesh. The project is aimed at improving their business model to realise better value chain and a better income.
The two-year project will cover 6,100 smallholder famers, including women farmers, in the drylands of Andhra Pradesh. “The project will set up community-based millet and legume processing facilities. It will provide access to training and more productive plant varieties, besides educating buyers in the market about the nutritional value of grain legumes to help boost demand,” a Walmart official said.
Representatives of Walmart and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropic (Icrisat) launched the project in New Delhi on Wednesday. The project will have twin objectives of doubling farmers' income and addressing malnutrition in rural areas.
“Farmers in Andhra Pradesh have very limited access to formal markets. We believe sustainable development in farming communities can be accelerated through direct skills building and growth of entrepreneurship,” Julie Gehrki, Vice-President of Philanthropy (Walmart Foundation), has said