Flipkart-SERP partnership to boost women’s livelihoods

Anantapur: Enhancing women’s livelihood is the primary objective, State SERP CEO Karuna Vakati stated while addressing a State-level workshop on value-based marketing in Anantapur on Friday. The workshop, organised under the collaboration of Flipkart and SERP, focused on improving farmers’ per capita income and providing better marketing opportunities for agricultural produce.

Karuna Vakati said a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Flipkart and SERP to uplift rural women’s livelihood by ensuring fair market prices for crops like groundnuts, pulses, rice, and millets. She stressed the role of Project Directors (PDs) and District Project Managers (DPMs) in facilitating this initiative and stressed the importance of quality in agricultural produce to ensure better market access.

A pilot project on value chain development and marketing intervention for crops such as groundnuts, Bengal gram, maize, and green gram was launched for Anantapur, Sri Sathya Sai, Kadapa, Kurnool, and Nandyal districts with Flipkart as an MoU partner.

District Collector Dr Vinod Kumar V said regional-level workshop is a crucial step toward empowering farmers in Anantapur and neighbouring districts. He noted that the agreement between Flipkart and SERP was signed in the presence of Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, and as part of this agreement, Anantapur was chosen to host the first workshop.

Eliminating middlemen and ensuring better prices for farmers were key objectives of this initiative. He assured that the district administration would provide full support to Flipkart and farmers involved in the programme. The workshop also focused on guiding SERP district-level officials on value chain development, planning marketing strategies through Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and implementing collective marketing practices.

Joint Collector Shiv Narayan Sharma, District Agriculture Officer Umamaheswaramma, DRDA PD B Eshwarayya, DRDA PDs from multiple districts, Flipkart Grocery Manager Giribabu, SERP Additional Directors Sarala and Mahitha, DRDA-Velugu DPM B Gangadhar, SERP Project Executive B Srinivasulu, Flipkart Corporate Affairs Associate Director Girish Nair, Flipkart Grocery Sourcing Associate Director Uday Rayapureddy and Flipkart Group Government and Corporate Affairs Senior Manager Dr Dipu Thomas Joy and others

explained the company’s procurement process and the importance of grading and quality assessment.