Activities within the grant and impact:
The RGR Cell’s three-year proposal for promoting agricultural diversification by improving market access through a cluster development approach. The project is a pro-active attempt to showcase the scope of the proposed plans and to prepare the farmers and agriculture system for adopting and using new ideas and provisions supported by the government. The main objective of the project is thus to empower the farmers by organising them into groups and providing them with a platform for knowledge sharing, market information sharing and technology transfer, where they can share their concerns and handle their agricultural produce for better market access and better prices. Currently, the project will focus on three crops, namely groundnut, moong and vegetables and will be confined to the farmers of Punjab. Based on the success of this pilot project, further expansion of the proven methodologies can be tried out in other states in the future.

	Identification of potential cluster regions
	Carrying out a diagnostic study to identify present status of production and marketing of the selected crops
	Mobilizing and motivating farmers to form collaborations
	Formation and strengthening of Self Help Groups (SHG) and development of market linkages and business plans
	Building of common facility centres (CFC) for execution of activities
	Conversion of SHGs into producers’ company and nurturing it.

The project would develop and showcase the benefits of effective marketing systems, improve market access and price realisation for farmers through knowledge transfer and create effective producer organisations. Besides, it would enhance livelihoods by way of increased farmers’ incomes through collective marketing efforts, value addition, assured supply to buyers and employment generation in rural-based agro industry. A baseline study of existing marketing channels in these crops reveals convincing scope for obtaining an increase of 10-15 per cent in the producers’ share, which is estimated to provide around Rs.800,000 from groundnut, Rs1 million from moong and Rs2 million from vegetables. The anticipated assured additional income through new channels of profitable marketing would attract many more farmers to adopt them as a general practice, ultimately leading to substantial increase in area and production of groundnut, pulses and vegetables in approximately 10,000 additional hectares, providing food and nutritional security on a sustainable basis, whilst simultaneously encouraging diversification in agriculture. A baseline study focusing on the marketing pattern of groundnut has highlighted that through collective marketing, the profit margin of producers can be increased by up to 10 per cent by simple value addition (roasting). Similar profit margins are also anticipated for summer moong and vegetables. A total of 2,000 small and marginal farmers would be covered under the cluster formation.