Infosys Foundation Strives To Improve Farmer Income Through INR 5 Cr Grant

HYDERABAD, (March 15, 2016): Infosys Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Infosys, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Sahakara Mitra Samstha (Center for Collective Development), to enhance the livelihood of the farming community in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

As part of this three year MoU, the Foundation will make a grant of INR 5 crore to the Center for Collective Development, thereby providing it an impetus to work on increasing revenue and profits of the farmers in the two states by adopting efficient business models. This MoU will also aim to create awareness about sustainable agricultural practices amongst the farmers.

Through this MoU, the Center for Collective Development will also aim to build sustainable farmer co-operative societies and facilitate pool, process as well as the sale of produce in two districts of Andhra Pradesh (Anantapur and Chittoor) and one district in Telangana (Adilabad). It will also work towards bringing in new co-operatives from different areas to strengthen the federation activities of its association, set up new processing units and enable the creation of a district level forum where farmers can voice their issues.

As part of its ongoing efforts towards rural development, the Foundation intends to influence the livelihood of more than 15,000 small and marginal farmers through the work done by co-operatives under the Center for Collective Development.

The Center for Collective Development (CCD) also called “Sahakara Mitra Samstha” is an NGO, working to make farmers and other primary producers prosperous. It also focuses on significantly enhancing incomes of all small farmers in the regions where they work by using innovative business models, and extend these business models all over the country to benefit farmers and other primary producers.