Walmart Foundation Launches $1.2 Million Grant For Transform Rural India To Improve Livelihoods Of Women Farmers

The grant will be utilised as a part of a two-year project and will focus on developing ten self-sustainable women-led farmer producer organisations (FPOs).

The Walmart Foundation announced a grant of $1.2 million for the Transform Rural India Foundation on Thursday to help improve the livelihoods of 15,000 women rural farmers in Uttar Pradesh by boosting their average base income. 

The grant will be utilised as a part of a two-year project and will focus on developing ten self-sustainable women-led farmer producer organisations (FPOs) reported PTI. Additionally, the grant will work to provide a platform for women farmers to strengthen and diversify their livelihoods, the foundation stated in a statement. 

Elaborating on the initiative, Walmart Foundation Vice President, COO, Julie Gehrki, said, “This project strongly resonates with our commitment to reach 1 million farmers by 2028 with at least 50 per cent women. This investment will broaden our outreach to more women in rural areas and solidify our impact by promoting sustainable increase and unlocking additional sources of income.”

As part of the project, the FPOs would receive help to develop business plans, post-harvest infrastructure, and to build mandatory systems and processes like digital book-keeping, and management control systems, the foundation noted. 

Further, the foundation said that the grant would help provide assistance in training and capacity-building sessions for women farmers and assist in the adoption of climate-resilient practices like soil health improvement, organic mixtures for crop nutrition and protection, and water management, among others. 

TRIF Managing Director, Anish Kumar, said, “It will establish 'Krishi Value Hub' to undertake processing activities for identified buyers through white-label goods, which other companies can sell as their brands, and for the deployment of an enterprise resource planning system.  The interventions will include value chains like pulses, cereals, and horticulture crops, apart from poultry, fisheries, and goat rearing. 

This grant from the Walmart Foundation will help develop and demonstrate the institutional model for marginal and women farmers; we are grateful to Walmart Foundation and hopeful to build these lighthouses.”

The foundation informed that the programme would help support 15,000 women in productive roles within the FPOs by leveraging self-help groups promoted by the Deendayal Antodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihood Mission (DAY-NRLM), which is a government initiative.