Deepak Fertilizers ties up with Samunnati to offer agri services to FPOs in 5 states

New Delhi: Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemicals on Thursday said it has tied up with agri value chain enabler Samunnati to offer crop advisory, agri-inputs as well as customised finance options to Farmer Producer Organisations in five states. The partnership is expected to empower over 70,000 farmers through 150 FPOs across five states -- Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana -- in the next three years, the company said in a statement.

As per the memorandum of understanding (MoU), the FPOs will be able to access crop-based advisory and agri-inputs through Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (DFPCL) along with the customised finance options through Samunnati, it added.

Commenting on the development, DFPCL Crop Nutrition Business President Mahesh Girdhar said the company through its 100 per cent owned subsidiary Smartchem Technologies Limited (STL), is already working with Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) associated with Samunnati and has appointed some of them as dealers.

Armed with the required information and scientific knowledge of crop nutrition, DFPCL will guide the FPOs and associated farmers under the Samunnati umbrella for a better yield and with a mission to transform their lives for the better, he added.

"We have been working with 500 FPOs across 19 states in India with a mission to make markets work for smallholder farmers. We believe, this partnership will enable FPOs and their farmer members have access to timely inputs and capacity building/advisory services; ultimately creating better incomes and livelihood," Samunnati Founder and CEO Anil Kumar SG said.

FPOs are fast emerging as a solution to many problems faced by individual farmers.

The FPOs give an aggregated strength to the group of farmers (each FPO has member farmers in the range of 250-1,000) to undertake cluster-based crop planning approach to credit, have access to right priced quality inputs, professional farm advisory services and access to right markets for getting the right price for their produce.