A state-of-the-art FSSAI-licensed secondary groundnut processing unit is being built at Muddulapuram of Kuderu mandal in Anantapur district with a built-up area of 9,490.75 sq ft, which will have the processing lines for nutri-mix (millet) line, groundnut roasting line, chikki processing line, peanut snacks line, cookie line, and cold-pressed oil line.
A.F. Ecology Centre Director Y. V. Malla Reddy, at an ICRISAT-AFEC joint farmer awareness programme in Dharmavaram on new agricultural practices like encouraging mixed cropping, kitchen gardening, and farmer field demonstrations, told the gathering on Sunday that supporting smallholder farmers to better harness markets is a powerful way of helping communities move from poverty to prosperity.
Speakers at the awareness programme said that ICRISAT’s Inclusive Market-Oriented Development programme had supported millions of farmers across the country to achieve better livelihoods. The project being implemented in Anantapur with the support of the Walmart Foundation was a great opportunity to further enhance the lives of farmers, they opined.
The project was initiated by ICRISAT in 2018 in partnership with the A.F. Ecology Centre (AFEC) with a grant from the Walmart Foundation. Since the inception of the project, 6,000 small farmers were formed into nine Mutually Aided Co-operative Society Limited (MACS), 3,500 of whom are women. The MACS are located in Dharmavaram, Rapthadu, Kuderu, Atmakur, Kalyandurgam, Beluguppa, Kundurpi, and Setturu mandals. The Farmer Producer Organisations were established with the help of the AFEC with an intention of creating farmers as farm earners and making the local farmer organisations a social business enterprise for commercial transactions and higher price realisation.
The project successfully established four community-based primary processing centres (PPCs), each run by the MACS at Dharmavaram, Rapthadu, Kuderu, and Atmakur for groundnut and dal. The farmers are able to sell their raw produce at a profitable price, to the PPCs based on quality (Captive mode) providing them Fair Market Price and assured quality benefitting farmers, traders, and stakeholders across the value chain.
These units have processed and marketed 216 tonnes of groundnut and 2.77 tonnes of dal, with a transactional value of ₹70 lakh, the MACS members said and pointed out that they could make a profit of ₹4 lakh generating direct employment for 857 persons.
