Business Areas

 1. Procurement Services

The company provide procurement services to government and private companies for procurement of agri commodities like groundnut, soybean, wheat, cumin, castor, mustard, gram and tur. From 2017 till date we have procured and supplied more than 60,000 MT of these commodities.

2. Processing and Value Addition

The company is engaged in primary processing of groundnut. We supply groundnut kernals to local processors and exporters. Members associated with Gujpro are also engaged in processing and packaging of oilseeds, grains, pulses and spices.

Gujpro believes that primary processing should necessarily be done at the point of aggregation. This will improve the efficiency of the food supply chain and help generate rural employment. Hence, Gujpro motivates all FPOs to take up primary processing activities in their local area. Looking at price competitiveness and the higher investment required in secondary and tertiary processing, it is proposed to take up higher level of processing at cluster or regional level which could be anchored by the FPO federation with active participation of FPOs from that region. The proposed working model of Gujpro is given in the figure below:

3. Warehouse Based Trading

Farmers produce is aggregated from farm gate and cluster level collection centers and stored in local and regional warehouses. Even farmers are motivated to stock their produce in these local warehouses against which they can avail pledge finance.

4. Sale of Seeds and Bio-inputs

The farmers can avail seeds and bio-inputs through the partner FPOs of Gujpro at affordable rates and consistent quality. Groundnut and Wheat seeds are sold under the company’s brand name while others are directly sourced from the seed companies and sold to the FPOs. For providing bio-inputs for crop nutrition and crop protection to farmers, the company has collaborated with reputed companies like Verdesian Life Sciences and Yara International ASA.

5. Agri-Mechanization Services

The company is involved into facilitation of setting up Custom Hiring Centers (CHCs) in FPO’s operational area for the farmer members to avail the agri-equipments at affordable rates and no capital investment. The CHC also serves as a profitable business opportunity for FPOs.

The company also provides spraying services to the FPOs of Gujarat through agri-drones. The company has exclusive distributorship of Gujarat for sale of agri-drones to FPOs and NGOs of Gujarat. The FPOs have lucrative business opportunities for providing spraying services to their farmer members. The farmers also benefit hugely by purchasing the agri-drones through FPO.

Programmes

FPO 360

FPO 360 is an initiative by Gujpro and Samunnati in order to increase the business prospects and participation in trade of the member FPOs with Gujpro. The initiative also aims at building the capacity and networking among the member FPOs to resolve the gaps in the governance, trade, administration, etc. resulting in 360 degree development of the member FPOs.

Fair Trade

Gujpro has been Fairtrade certified as a secondary producer organization for peanut trade by Flocert (Fairtrade certification body) since Dec, 2022. Fairtrade project aims at promoting sustainable agriculture by following the norms and principles benefitting the environment and every player in the value chain. Few important areas covered under the guidelines are – Stopping the usage of prohibited chemicals listed under red and orange category identified by the agency, documenting and auditing the key players in the value chain and restricting child and bonded labour at every stage of the product value chain.

Capacity Building programmes

Gujpro, being a federation of FPOs of Gujarat and an institution initially promoted by Sajjata Sangh, conducts various programmes for member and non-member FPOs focusing towards the capacity building of the FPOs and their management. Some of the programmes focus on trade support like training on the Quality Control parameters of groundnut, workshop on the chemical management and measures to increase the productivity of key crops of Gujarat, etc. Some other programmes focus on the non-trade support like training on the maintenance of vouchers and books of accounts, workshop on the different opportunities available for financial linkages, workshop on governance and management of FPOs, etc.

FPO Ecosystem Development Project

Gujpro, under FPO Ecosystem Development Project, has activated 3 FPO clusters in Gujarat namely Sabarkantha, North Gujarat and Rajkot Clusters with the support of Reliance Foundation. The focused activities of the clusters incude faciliatation of market linkages of key crops dealt by FPOs, knowledge-sharing, capacity building and training workshops of the FPOs, identifying inter-FPO and inter-cluster trade opportunities, providing handholding support to FPOs, etc.

Networking & Advocacy

In addition to carrying out its core business functions, Gujpro also acts as learning and sharing platform for FPOs.  Through Gujpro, the FPOs in Gujarat have got a better opportunity to know and learn from each other.  To keep the FPOs better informed about the new developments and the various changes happening in the policy environment which concerns them and also to facilitate linkages and collaborations with various private sector players, government and with other stakeholders, Gujpro regularly organizes dialogues by experts, virtual meetings and workshops.

We have also introduced the concept of Clusters Meetings from the year 2023 to bring together FPOs from different geographical regions having similar agro-climatic conditions and product basket.  In these cluster meetings, FPOs from these clusters meet regularly and learn from each other, explore areas of mutual interests, collaborate and work together to improve their services for farmers, enhance their effectiveness and develop new businesses.  New products, services and technologies offered by various companies/start-ups are also be introduced through these cluster meetings.

Since its inception, Gujpro has always been in the forefront for advocating with the state and central government for creating enabling policies which could aid the growth of FPOs and enable them to take up a bigger role in value chain activities.  The representatives from Gujpro represent on several prestigious forums which are playing a key role in influencing the policies of the government on FPOs and also with the private sector at large for increasing their engagement with the FPO community.  Details of these bodies are given below:

  • Steering Committee Member of National Association of FPOs (NAFPO), New Delhi (since 2018)
  • Member of the Task Force on FPOs at FICCI (since 2021)
  • Member of the Working Group on Market Linkages under the CSS for Formation & Promotion of 10,000 FPOs under the Department of Agriculture & Farmer Welfare, GOI (since 2023)

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