The Walmart Foundation has partnered with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropic (ICRISAT), an organisation that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, in supporting a new project that aims to help smallholder farmers in Andhra Pradesh, India, the retailer said in a statement.
Walmart has invested a little under $2 million (€1.7 million) in an intensive, two-year project that will work to help farmers develop an improved business model. The goal is for the farms to develop better value chains and, ultimately, better incomes.
ICRISAT is a scientific research institution that has worked with farmers in 17 countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa that have semi-arid tropical climates.
Project Initiatives
The two key priorities of ICRISAT’s project are focusing on doubling farmers’ incomes, in addition to addressing the issue of malnutrition in rural areas.
According to the retailer, the project will work to establish community-based processing facilities for millet as well as legumes. The project will also work towards establishing access to training, introduce more plant varieties, and work to increase market demand by educating consumers on the nutritional importance of grain legumes.
The project will work with 6,100 smallholder farmers, of which 2,000 are women.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Padideh Aghanoury. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
