In the states of Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh as well as in the state of Odisha, the Walmart Foundation has announced the awarding of two new grants with the intention of enhancing the standard of living of smallholder farmers by way of the Farmer Producer Organization (FPO) structure.
The foundation’s first award will be in the amount of $3 million and will be given to TechnoServe for the benefit of smallholder farmers in the states of Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. The organization’s goal is to reach 24 FPOs and 30,000 farmers, of which it is anticipated that 50% will be women.
The second funding will provide Trickle Up with $533,876 in order to further its mission of connecting 1,000 female smallholder farmers in Odisha with two different nonprofit organizations.
According to Kathleen McLaughlin, Executive Vice President and Chief Sustainability Officer of Walmart Inc. and President of the Walmart Foundation, “The two grants are a part of a new five-year strategy that aims to reach 1 million smallholder farmers by 2028 with at least 50% women,” and this was stated by McLaughlin.
Grants from the Walmart Foundation will focus on enabling local grantees to better support capacity building for farmer producer organizations (FPOs), expanding access to market linkages so that grantees can participate in commercial opportunities in a more seamless manner, and training farmers on sustainable farming methods and technology, with a particular emphasis on empowering women farmers.
Grantees of the Walmart Foundation anticipate that, as a result of these investments, they will be able to collectively sustain over 800,000 smallholder farmers.
