Infosys Technologies has partnered with ACDI/VOCA, non-profit international development organisation to develop an information and communication technology (ICT) application to improve efficiencies in the agro-supply chain in India.
The solution aims to reduce inventory requirements, reduce waste and improve integration between retailers and farmers. The application is part of ACDI/VOCA's Growth-Orientated Microenterprise Development Programme (GMED) which is a US$6.3mn initiative funded by development agency USAID.
"Maintaining on-time, programmed delivery of fresh produce from a large and scattered production base is a complex and critical operation,” comments Binod H.R, senior vice president and head of the India Business Unit at Infosys Technologies.
“This solution gives the organised retail sector access to a reliable smallholder production base. It thereby decreases farm-to-market losses, currently estimated at 30% to 40% on certain products,” he adds.
The application provides supply chain support from profiling farmer clusters to crop planning, scheduling, tracking and forecasting. It allows farmers to access technical information including region-specific updates and market information.
So far there are 1,700 smallholder farmers integrated into organised retail supply chains through this application. Over the next five to eight years, it is hoped that usage will increase to at least a million farmers, helping bridge current urban-agricultural divides.
ACDI/VOCA is a result of a merger between two US nonprofit groups, Agricultural Cooperative Development International and Volunteers in Overseas Cooperative Assistance in 1997. Separately the groups have been active for the last 45 years across 145 countries providing technical and management assistance in agribusiness systems, financial services and business development. To date the organisation has 79 projects in 46 countries, generating revenues of approximately US$90mn.
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