STUDY TOUR ON CONTRACT FARMING AND VALUE CHAIN ANALYSIS IN INDIA

BV Rao Poultry Institute, Pune. Source: Prabin Dongal, IIDS

IFPRI recently organized a five day study tour on contract farming and value chain analysis in India for a delegation from Nepal. The program was designed to analyse the conditions for success of contract farming and to assess the business environment for contract farming. The study tour aimed to demonstrate the benefits of contract farming under what would be a similar environment in Nepal. The objective of the tour was to show the participants the prevailing best practices in contract farming for pomegranates, grapes, and poultry, as well as onions and other vegetables, and teach them state of the art techniques.

The study tour began with the team visiting the Dr. B.V. Rao Institute of Poultry Management and Technology at Uruli Kanchan in Pune district on August 19, 2015. This was followed by a meeting with a grape farmers association called Mahagrape organization and other farmers in the district, to understand the opportunities for and challenges of contract farming.

The delegates also visited the Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) at Baramati to understand the promotion of modern agricultural technologies and good agricultural practices among farmers, such as bio-fertilizers and bio-pesticides, certification of farmers’ seeds, custom-hiring facility for agricultural equipment, soil testing, poly-house techniques, water conservation, and water harvesting techniques.

Value Chain Analysis Training, New Delhi. Source: Sunil Saroj, IFPRI

Later in the week, the team visited the Baramati Farmers’ Producer Company and the Jain Research Institute located in Wakad village of Aurangabad district. The delegates interacted with the scientists to learn more about technologies like drip irrigation, solar power, tissue culture techniques, and water harvesting.  This study tour concluded with a week-long training in New Delhi on contract farming and value chain analysis. This study tour is part of the ongoing USAID-funded Policy Reform Initiative in Nepal. 

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