RURAL SERVICE HUBS: BUSINESS CATALYSTS FOR RURAL COMPETITIVENESS AND INCLUSIVENESS – MARKETS FOR HIGH-VALUE COMMODITIES IN INDIA

Objective:
(1)  To promote the development and diffusion of Rural Business Hubs (RBHs) by the private sector to increase incomes, linkages to markets, and productivity of small, poor farmers including women to address  the rural services vacuum;

(2)  To create long-term capacity in the private sector and Indian research organization/university sector to inform that promotion;

(3)  To inform policy formation by policymakers and other stakeholders in order to promote “competitiveness, inclusiveness, scalability, and sustainability” (CISS) in RBH development and farmers’ access to it.

Approach:
The main planned project activities are as follows:
(1) to study RBHs and the farm households in the catchment areas of those hubs, in order to assess the quantity and quality of current service coverage of farmer strata and gender types by RBHs versus the traditional sector;

(2) interact with partner companies to assess information from the study and design innovations to be experimentally rolled out in pilot form in a subset of RBHs. These innovations are envisioned to depend on the results of the studies, and be innovations in type, design, and delivery of RBH services and products; the objective of the innovations will be to reduce the cost and improve quality, and coverage impact for small farmers including female farmers, and others among the rural poor, while simultaneously in a win-win way helping the business growth of the RBH companies in order to pursue scalability and sustainability to address the rural services vacuum;

(3) provide technical assistance in post-harvest domains to assist the roll-out of the innovations through expertise from Indian universities and MSU;

(4) assess the impacts of innovations of alliance partners that respond to the study and focus group findings, and measure and monitor the leveraging of USAID funds by the investments of the alliance partners; and

(5) inform stakeholders, including policymakers, industry associations, and farmer groups, of the results of the studies, and the design and impact of the innovations.

Timeline: July 2008 - June 2012

Geographical Coverage: India