Community Supported Agriculture

Mandi Fresh is starting community supported farming with the support from local farmers and local consumers. Stay tuned , watch this space for further development.

NGO & Agripreneurs

Agripreneurs or any other entrepreneurs struggles with project finance. There are various sources of finance including bank term loan, govt subsidy, venture capital and self funds. In this article I will focus on govt subsidy. Indian Government in general, provides subsidy from 33% to 90% (almost 100%) to various individuals. Individual can be a farmer, an NGO or a private ltd company.

One has to be careful while looking for subsidy %. If one is looking for 100% subsidy on projects then its is my personal opinion to form an NGO and present the case to Govt. department. There are some drawbacks in it though. Because NGO does not share profit to its shareholders, it is unlikely that any private equity house (or venture capital) will be interested in venturing into your NGO. However keep in mind that this is not always true given that every big firm has corporate social responsibility cell which supports local NGO.

Forming an NGO and getting funds released from government has generally 3 years of gap. Govt guidelines suggests that it funds those NGO who are active and working from at least past 3 years. So the next question arise how to survive these three years before govt can issue any grant or support for the project.
Needless to say NGO founders are very capable and passionate about their work. This will directly or indirectly will arrange money from some or the other sources.

Generally, the local companies, friends and families come forward to support the NGO.

Farm Visit pictures

Vegetable prices are soaring

Morning 8 a.m people start looking at news paper or rush to office , may be some senior citizens walk to get milk and vegetables. Main headlines on news paper "price of vegetables has gone up", even after govt intervention, retail prices are not coming down etcetra.  Shop keepers says to senior citizen "Sir Upar se maal mahanga aa raha hai, so how can i sell at lower prices". Apart from cost, quality and service are another factors that leads to dissatisfaction in our mind.

Govt and Growers are doing their jobs, local shopkeepers are also justified to some extent. So the question to the consumer is should we keep reading or watching news paper about price hike of daily needs produce and continue to shell off relatively larger portion of our hard earn money on fruits and vegetables.

If you look at the past how our villagers used to live together to control over cost, similar techniques can be used in the modern days to change the mindset from expense, to save, to earn concept.

So start thinking on how can we earn by buying vegetables. Its not marketing gimmic "earn points" etc but its real earning in money and health perspective.

People when they are sick some time say " Health is Wealth". Isn't it true even when we are not sick.We all endorse this.

There are two important points that has come clearly. We need to be eat healthy fruits and vegetables and secondly we should be thinking in terms of earning when we buy vegetables.

Food safety is one the the major concern consumers are facing. If one visit the local mandi to check how their vegetables are put on mud before its sold to reseller. Veggies handling and transportation adds to further infection. Today's families are more aware about Organic produces (literally meaning  zero pesticide and insecticide).

Vegetables safety : Organically grown products are more healthier than products with heavy usage of pesticide and insecticide.
Vegetables price: Vegetables should be priced at the mutual agreed price between grower and consumer.
Service: Vegetables should be delivered to consumer's doorstep or self pick up by the consumer.


In order to eat healthy and earn we may go back in history and look for forming a community of consumers who will
Community-supported agriculture (in Canada Community Shared Agriculture) (CSA) is a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farming operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production. CSAs usually consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit, in a vegetable box scheme, and sometimes includes dairy products and meat.

Benefits of Community supported agriculture:
CSA System

CSAs generally focus on the production of high quality foods for a local community, often using organic or biodynamic farming methods, and a shared risk membership–marketing structure. This kind of farming operates with a much greater degree of involvement of consumers and other stakeholders than usual — resulting in a stronger consumer-producer relationship. The core design includes developing a cohesive consumer group that is willing to fund a whole season’s budget in order to get quality foods. The system has many variations on how the farm budget is supported by the consumers and how the producers then deliver the foods. CSA theory purports that the more a farm embraces whole-farm, whole-budget support, the more it can focus on quality and reduce the risk of food waste or financial loss.

Structure
CSA focuses on having

• a transparent, whole season budget for producing a specified wide array of products for a set number of weeks a year;
• a common-pricing system where producers and consumers discuss and democratically agree to pricing based on the acceptance of the budget;
• a ‘shared risk and reward’ agreement, i.e. that the consumers receive what the farmers grow even with the vagaries of seasonal growing.

Thus individuals, families or groups do not pay for x kilograms of produce but rather support the budget of the whole farm and receive weekly what is seasonally ripe. This approach eliminates the marketing risks, costs for the producer and an enormous amount of time and labor, and allows producers to focus on quality care of the soils, crops, animals and co-workers as well as on serving the customers. There is financial stability in this system which allows for thorough planning on the part of the farmer.

Distribution and marketing methods
A distinctive feature of CSAs is the method of distribution. Vegetables shares are provided every week with pick-up or deliveries occuring on a designated day and time.

CSAs are different from buying clubs and home delivery services where the consumer buys a specific product at a predetermined price. CSA members purchase only what the farm is able to successfully grow and harvest sharing some of the growing risk with the farmer. If the strawberry crop is not successful, for example, the CSA member will share the burden of the crop failure by receiving fewer, or lower quality, strawberries for the season. CSA members are often more actively involved in the growing and distribution process through shared newsletters and recipes, farm visits, farm work-days, advance purchases of shares and picking up their shares of produce.

In such cases the farmer may supplement each box with produce brought in from neighboring farms for a wider variety. Thus there is a distinction between the farmers selling pre-paid shares in the upcoming season's harvest or a weekly subscription that represents that week's harvest. In all cases participants purchase a portion of the farm's harvest either by the season or by the week in return for what the farm is able to successfully grow and harvest.
An advantage of the close consumer-producer relationship is increased freshness of the produce because it does not have to be shipped long distances. The close proximity of the farm to the members also helps the environment by reducing pollution caused by transporting the produce. CSAs often include recipes and farm news in each box in which tours of the farm and work days are announced. Over a period of time consumers get to know who is producing their food and what production methods are used.

To know how can join the community supported farming.Please call Shilu ,9910035164 or email mandi.fresh@gmail.com

Critical factors for the success of agripreneur

Taken from http://www.agriclinics.net/evaluation/midtermevaluationreport.pdf

Critical factors for the success of agripreneur

During the course of study on discussions with the agripreneurs the following factors were recognized as critical to their success.

Marketability of the Project:
one of the key factors in the success of the agriventure

has been the product or service demand. Certain projects like ACABC, floriculture

and Seed production have ready market and can be sold easily. Therefore the

selection of project is very important. Those ventures that have been successful have attributed their success to the high demand of their product and services. This was further proven by the data collected during the survey. More than half of the ventures set up are of ACABC and other project areas like horticulture Clinics, veterinary clinics, soil testing labs and crop protection centers are very few in numbers. Thus, focus of a majority of ventures has been on service related activities. Marketing related projects (Direct/Related markets) accounted for only 4.1% of the total number. The scheme also promoted projects in innovative areas like tissue culture, agri journalism, eco-tourism, and agri— insurance and so on, but less than 1% of the projects set up covered these sectors. Depending on the project marketability the popularity of the projects has been assessed.

One stop shop for the farmers:
in case of ACABC the ventures have proved to be a

success because they serve as one stop shop for the farmers. Where they are not

only able to get free of cost advices regarding production, they also have access to

the desired inputs in terms of seeds, fertilizers and so on. This kind of multifaceted

function has led to the success of the ventures. 39% of the farmer’s respondent that

the single window advisory was one of the most important benefits that they derived

from ACABC. Thus convenience and single window availability of advisory services

one of the success factors for successful ventures.

Farmer’s Relationship:
attributing to the success of the agri ventures is the farmer’s

network built during the course of time. Through timely and quality service the

ventures have been able to establish good relations with the farmers thus creating a

network of farmers who keep on increasing with the word of mouth. This also creates

loyalty within the farming community and they keep their association with the

agripreneur.

Quality Assurance: these days when duplicate fertilizers and poor quality inputs are

readily available in the market, farmers usually fall prey to them and ruin the crops.

Services provided by the agripreneurs are genuine and many a times comes with

quality assurance. Moreover these entrepreneurs are educated and from agriculture

background so they have far better understanding and technical knowledge which

many a times farmers do not have. This is one factor which has contributed to the

success of agriventure.

Reliable information: the information and knowledge gained during the training is

considered to be valuable and is passed on to the farmers. Availability of reliable

information has proved to be one of the factors for the success of the enterprise.

Agriclinic Scheme Details

As per the new guidlines issued by Govt of India,Ministry of Agriculture dated 30 sep, 2010. Agriclinic policy has gone a sea change and it now have more flexibility. Here are some salient point.

Eligibility Criteria

Objective of the scheme

To supplement efforts of public extension by necessarily providing extension and other services to the farmers on payment basis or free of cost as per business model of agricultural entrepreneur (agri-preneurs), local needs and affordability of target group of farmers

Eligibility criteria for candidates under ACABC Scheme

1. Graduate in agriculture and allied subjects from SAUs/central Agricultural universities/universities recognized by ICAR/UGC. Degree holders in agriculture and allied subjects offered by other agencies are also eligible subject to approval of department of agriculture and cooperation, government of India on recommendation of the state Government.
2. Diploma (with at least 50% marks) /post graduate diploma holders in Agriculture and allied subjects from state agricultural universities, state agriculture and allied departments and state department of technical education, diploma holders in agriculture and allied subjects offered by other agencies are also eligible subject to approval of department of agriculture & cooperation, government of India on recommendation of the state Government.
3. Biological science gradates with post graduation in agriculture & allied subjects.

CHANGE FROM CAPITAL & INTERESET SUBSIDY TO COMPOSITE SUBSIDY:

Subsidy pattern has been revised from "Capital and interest subsidy" to "composite subsidy" which will be back-ended in nature. It will be 4% of Project cost for women, SC/ST & all categories of candidates from NEAND hill states and 36% of project cost for all others.

In all new cases, subsidy will be released as composite subsidy.

NABARD will ensure that the banks do not charge interest on subsidy

Portion of the loan as back-ended subsidy is released to banks up-front. The benefit of subsidy will be extended maximum twice to a candidate under the scheme.

LIMIT ON TOTAL FINANCIAL OUTLAY

Ceiling of the project cost for subsidy has been enhanced to Rs 2o lakh for individual's project (Rs. 25 lakh in case of extremely successful individual projects) and to Rs. 100 lakh for a group project (minimum of five individuals)

The term loan would be composite in nature and participating banks would extend bank loan as per the total financial outlay (TFO) which would include fixed capital cost , working capital for one operating cycle, and subsidy amount eligible (as subsidy is back-ended) but it would not include margin money.

The provision of composite subsidy even for low capital investment cases has been now being introduced as it is definitely possible that some agri-preneurs already have capital (e.g. a building) to start a venture, thereby requiring minimal capital investment.

At least 10% value of the total financial outlay (TFO) of the projects should be in capital form.

Payment of back-ended subsidy will be linked to extension services provided by the agri-preneurs. For this purpose any two out a group of rank and status not below the following officials /person would make a periodic /surprise inspection and submit its report to NABARD/financing bank/office of ATMA.

And there are many more . Please read the official document by clicking here

Best Regards,

Shilu Sinha

B.Sc (Agriculture), MBA (Marketing)

Director,

Mandi Fresh Agro Pvt. Ltd

+91-9910035164 | 0124-2213173

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Agriculture graduate or post graduate required for setting up Agriclinic in Haryana

Please respond if you are willing to relocate to Haryana within 3 months and specify whether you can invest your full time and energy into this. We need 3 more agriculture or allied field graduate or post graduate to form a five member team. we already have a team of one agripreneurs and two MBA.

Project Location: Haryana

(Pls respond if you are residing in Haryana or willing to relocate to Haryana within 3 months)

Proposal:

To expand the mandi fresh services (e-retailing of farm produce, provide farm input, education, village tourism, employment, health care, organic manure) to broader societies in India.
During this process we create value for farmers as well as for the consumer as below.

Value creation for farmer

• Pick up from their farm or nearby pick up point,
• Sharing the profit with the farmers,
• Providing input such as pesticide, seeds, organic manure
• Providing farming training and consultancy
• Education for kids
• Direct employment of villagers in our company.
• Supply organic manure using vermicompost

Value creation for consumer

• Door step delivery
• Fresh supply of veggies directly from known farm
• Collecting kitchen waste from end consumers for Organic manure
• Providing opportunities for urban people to participate in education/medical camp/ awareness creation camp
• Every week village tour for 2 hours
• This establishment is limited to 300 active customers on
• Less than market rate for vegetables

Operational Plan:

Creating three platforms.
1. Farmer association
2. Consumer association
3. Farmer and Consumer interaction platform through farm visit or village tourism
  

Sourcing Plan:

We believe in multi point sourcing such as Mandi, collection center, contract farming

Distribution Plan:

Checks and balances to ensure daily material, information and money transaction are

Marketing Plan:

Build customer community through Farm Visit, Awareness camp, Social networking, Village tourism

Sales Plan:

Invite prepayment of monthly daily needs (milk, vegetables, fruits, Grocery etc) and share the profit.

Human Resource:

Villagers and Urban Women

Team:

The overall team structure is outlined below. Integration among team with transparency will be ensured through systematic approach of forming a project and tracking it to its completion. 

1.      Sourcing team

2.      Distribution team

3.      Leadership team

4.      Investor team

5.      Sales & Marketing team

Fund Raising:

Fund will raised from Govt. schemes (agriclinics/NHB/NHM), private equity, and Loan form PSU banks.

Technology:

Portal, telecom SMS, social networking sites to facilitate e-order booking and e-billing

Funding Requirement

Four Agriculture graduates are required. Each agriculture graduate should be able to invest up to 5 Lakhs initially. Upon the project completion (1-2years). Govt will release subsidy of equivalent amount to bankers.

Some Statistics

1. Customer Wise
Total customer to sign up 1st year = 2000
Monthly Bill for each customer = 2000
Weekly bill for each customer = 500

2. Source wise
Weekly bill from Farm product per customer = 100
Weekly bill from mandi per customer = 400

3. Product wise
Weekly bill from Vegetables per customer = 200
Weekly bill from fruits per customer = 200
Weekly bill from Dairy and Grocery per customer = 100
4. Region wise
Weekly bill from sector- 47, Gurgaon = 80%
Weekly bill from DLF Phase (1 to 5), Gurgaon = 20%


For further information please contact:

Best Regards,

Shilu Sinha

B.Sc (Agriculture), MBA (Marketing)

Director,

Mandi Fresh Agro Pvt. Ltd

+91-9910035164 | 0124-2213173

Facebook | Twitter | Blog | Official website

Sohna Road

, Gurgaon.