On the one hand, it is in Walmart’s business interest to improve the volume, quality and cost of agricultural products it sources. In addition, Walmart is interested in improving the social and economic condition of smallholder farmers and farm workers in India. ASI proposes to apply a direct marketing systems approach to enable farmers to meet both of these needs. The crops that Walmart is presen
tly targeting are Coconut, Sweet lime, exotic vegetables and melons (in Andhra Pradesh), exotic vegetables (in Lucknow) and Apples (in Himachal Pradesh). ASI will help scale up the Direct Farm program by working with farmer groups to improve the quantity and quality of yields as well as establish or improve collection centres which will enable farmers to aggregate, sort, grade, and value-add (packing) their products. These collection centres will be managed by farmer cooperatives and will sell to organised traders, buyers, and wholesalers. In addition to improving market systems and the relationships within them, ASI will work with women as farmers/farm workers both to improve their productivity as well as to contribute to addressing structural obstacles that limit women’s ability to participate actively in and derive benefit from agriculture value chains.
