Battling The COVID-19 Agricultural Crisis Through Collective Action And Social Entrepreneurship

AUTHORS :

S. N. Tripathy

DOI :

CP2020/OCT-MAR/ARTCL1

ABSTRACT :

The present paper with the help of secondary sources of data attempts to capture the major events that shaped the course of cooperative movements in Odisha. The paper portrays the prevailing socio-economic factors and key events which contributed to the development of cooperatives in different phases and its genesis and growth trend in Odisha in the national perspectives.

REFERENCES :

Bengal under the Lieutenant-Governors, Vol. I. In C. Buckland – Northcok, S. (n.d.).
Madras Provincial Banking Enquiry Committee Report, 5 Vols. Madras. – Government of Madras. (1930).
Contractual Labour in Agricultural Sector. Discovery Publishing. – Tripathy, S. (2000).
Co-operative Movement in Odisha: Highlights of Progress. Odisha Review, February – March, 51-54. – Senapati, S. (2012).
Annual Activity Report 2018-19. Cooperation Department. – Government of Odisha.

KEYWORDS :

Cooperatives Movements, Rural credit, Money lenders, Farmers.

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AUTHORS :

Sagar K. Wadkar
Anshu Singh

DOI :

CP2021/July-September2021/ARTCL5

ABSTRACT :

The study attempts to capture the role of farmers’ producer companies (FPCs) before and during COVID-19 in the Maharashtra State, India. The primary data collected from 32 FPCs across 16 districts of the State. Descriptive statistics and the Garett ranking method were used to analyze the data. The results reveal that aggregation of produce was major business activity before and during COVID, with reorientation in their distribution systems. These enterprises contributed in building local resilience through campaigns about COVID-19, distribution of fruits & vegetables, masks, and sanitizers to marginalized sections of society for free. While the FPCs battled issues like agro produce wastage, piling losses and non-availability of labour, they continued marketing by adhering to COVID-19 protocols.

The extension services and peripheral support provided by the state government, and its enabling agencies facilitated a good connection between FPCs and urban consumers. The authors assert that a collective action is a strong form of social entrepreneurship for battling the COVID crisis and revival of agricultural value chains.

However, considering the present state of affairs, the FPCs model should be further strengthened with the help of capacity-building activities to build better “organization management systems”.

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KEYWORDS :

Collective Action, Farmer Producer Company (FPC), Social Enterprise, Agri Value Chain, Aggregation, COVID-19, Supply Chain, Agripreneurship, Extension Services.