GMED Partnership with Nandani Co-op

ACDI/VOCA’s Growth-Oriented Microenterprise Development Program (GMED) in India is partnering with the Nandani Cooperative in Maharashtra to increase smallholder vegetable and fruit farmer incomes through enhancing the domestic and international competitiveness of fresh produce industry value chains. GMED will help the co-op inculcate production and post-harvest technology and techniques among its 5,400 farmer members, leading to improvements in productivity and produce quality, by establishing linkages with organized retail and export markets and by assisting the co-op to obtain ancillary value chain services.

By positioning the cooperative as a horticulture production and marketing showcase, and a model built on a smallholder base, GMED will be able to demonstrate to the Indian horticulture sector and the retail industry the results that can be attained through a proper approach to smallholder agricultural development as well as help shift value chain power from the buyer to the producer. Activities include development and transfer of production and post-harvest practices, assistance in meeting local and international standards, implementation of quality assurance, sanitary and phytosanitary programs, design and implementation of a crop planning and scheduling program, introduction of an information and communications technology program, assistance in development of future business plans, introduction to and facilitation of ongoing linkages to organized retail and other buyers, and monitoring, evaluation, documentation and dissemination of results. The agreement with the Nandani cooperative runs through the end of Sept. 2007.

GMED is a USAID-funded, $6.3 million effort under the Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project.