How TraceX helped KMIT farmers to achieve Sustainability in the Maize Supply Chain

Anand is a young farming member of Laxmivenkateshwar FPO, Dadibhavi FIG LT3, Belgaum. He holds a total 3.5 acre of farmland in Dadibhavi village, growing various crop based on the season and geographic conditions.  

Anand is one of the many farmers who has a number of challenges of under production where they cannot often produce sufficient food to feed their families and earn a decent livelihood. There are many factors that contribute to low yields. 

• These farmers predominantly farm rain-fed crops which are cultivated using traditional practices 

• They often take land on lease and during harvest, they give the partial produce to the landowner unable to reach the market 

• These farmers are unorganized and fragmented and are under-priced at various stages in production 

• Crop management is a wary process which needs constant planning and monitoring 

• They have limited access to capital and input resources along with low quality inputs. 

• The lack of post-harvest processing, storage facilities and marketing linkages makes these farmers sell their produce almost immediately after harvest 

• There is a need to collectivize these small and marginal farmers into FPOs to help them get organized. 

• Climate change is a major challenge for agriculture, food security and lives of millions of these farmers. The climatic vagaries cause harvest failures, and they cannot cover costs of production. Crop agronomy and tracking sustainable agriculture practices are inevitable.