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Surviving Heat Waves Through Climate Resilient Biofortified Wheat Varieties: The Success Story of Mirjapur Jaiv Urja Farmers Producers Company

Mirjapur Jaiv Urja Farmer Producer Company, hereinafter referred to as "Jaiv Urja", was incorporated on January 30, 2019, in the Chunar region of Uttar Pradesh's Mirzapur district to enhance the financial resilience of smallholder farmers through promoting sustainable agricultural practices. The company started its operations with only 10 (ten) farmers and has gradually expanded its outreach to around 890 farmers, including 390 women farmers.

Dr. R.S Singh, one of the Directors of the FPC, is passionate about agricultural practices that are both sustainable and commercially viable. This combination of sustainability and profit is hard to achieve; however, Dr. Singh, a Ph.D. in agronomy, uses his skills to translate this into reality.

Under the guidance of Dr. Singh, Jaiv Urja operates to attain the following objectives:

• To promote the cultivation of medicinal plants in the Mirzapur area and promote it as a hub of medicinal plants

• To maintain the quality of planting material and produce economic development and financial resilience of the smallholder farmers

• Promote women's participation in agriculture and allied activities and

• To develop the entrepreneurial spirit in the region.

BEADS: Assisted E-Commerce and ONDC

Business Correspondent (BC) agents in India play a crucial role in providing financial services to underserved rural populations. However, their limited product basket and low commissions on banking transactions hinder their ability to earn a sustainable income. Grameen Foundation India’s BCNM Experiments and Demonstrating Scale (BEADS) project has identified assisted e-commerce as an additional revenue source for BC agents, partnering with the Centre for Development Orientation and Training (CDOT) to pilot this approach.

Exploring the Effectiveness of Low-Cost Marketing Methods for Business Correspondents in India

Marketing initiatives can help BCs to overcome challenges by increasing their visibility, creating awareness about their services, and attracting new customers. Effective marketing strategies can help BCs to increase their reach and improve their overall effectiveness in serving the unbanked population.

Gender Mainstreaming in Business Correspondent Networks

Grameen Foundation India’s Women Economic Empowerment report suggests that a woman BC agent serves a higher proportion of women customers, thereby addressing a critical gap. With the fundamental objective of facilitating financial inclusion, the BC network can no longer shy away from making a deliberate shift and a conscious choice of increasing women’s representation in the BC networks. Gender Inclusion within BC business serves a dual purpose. Firstly, it takes financial products and services to the last mile, bringing doorstep delivery and convenient access to services to women customers, the majority of who remain either excluded from or underserved by banking services. Secondly, having more women BCs as agents boosts employment opportunities at the community level, and also establishes these women as local role models as successful, influential, and respected entrepreneurs who deliver financial services to remote and underserved populations.

Reimagining the Next Generation BC Model

Grameen Foundation India The Report (GFI), together with the Business Correspondent Federation of India (BCFI), hosted a two-day CXO Roundtable on “Reimagining the Next- Generation BC Model” in Goa on Friday and Saturday, 11 November and 12 November 2022.

The invitation-only roundtable saw the industry leaders come on a common platform to communicate, collaborate and co-create a future-ready BC model that is inclusive, responsible, and viable.

Women-Friendly Micro-Savings Products

Microfinance is recognized as a promising and cost-effective tool in the fight against global poverty, with Grameen Bank’s work serving as a strong example. In developing countries like India, microfinance promotes micro-entrepreneurship and women’s empowerment through the Self-Help Group model. Although the Financial Inclusion Index shows an increase in financial inclusion in India, women remain the most financially excluded and underserved population due to various social, cultural, and systemic barriers.

Business Correspondent (BC) agents help address these gaps by delivering banking and financial services to the underserved, including women. Female BC agents have been found to serve a higher proportion of women customers, thus promoting financial inclusion. Grameen Foundation India in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is trying to increase the viability of BC agent networks and focuses on gender mainstreaming, partnering with banks and other financial institutions to offer micro-saving credit leveraged products specifically for women customers.

Escuchame Baseline Report

Grameen Foundation USA, in partnership with ODEF Financiera (ODEF) a financial service provider (FSP) headquartered out of San Pedro Sula, Honduras, launched the Escúchame project (meaning “Listen to Me” in English and is an acronym for the full project name: Economic Security for Honduran women entrepreneurs through Education and Male Engagement) with the goal to develop empowering ecosystems for women entrepreneurs in Honduras by engaging men as allies. Escúchame project objectives include: 1) Advance women’s economic security by expanding access to financial and non-financial services to women-led and women-owned micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that enhance business growth and resilience; and 2) Address harmful social and gender norms and enable safe work environments by conducting intrahousehold dialogues (IHDs) that engage men as allies for women involved in MSMEs.

BEADS Endline Report

In line with India’s National Strategy for Financial Inclusion 2019-24 goals, Grameen Foundation USA and Grameen Foundation India, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, launched the BCNM Experiments & Demonstrating Scale (BEADS) project to address the sustainability of BC agents. Three pilots, in collaboration with six partners, were conducted as part of the action research agenda to experiment with product diversification, capacity building, and customer empowerment as these are considered critical determinants of BC agent viabilities.

Business Correspondent Network Managers (BCNM) Experiment Demonstrating Scale: Gender Assessment

In order to gain a better understanding of how the Business Correspondents (BC) model in India can be improved to better drive last-mile financial inclusion, Grameen Foundation conducted an action research project known as Business Correspondent Network Managers (BCNMs) Experiments and Demonstrating Scale (BEADS). This Gender Assessment report describes the laws, policies, and institutional practices that protect and support women in India; the sociocultural norms, gender roles and power dynamics that influence women’s lives; women’s access to, use of, and control over assets and resources; the influence of gender-based violence (GBV) and crime on women; and describe the intersectional identities that may deepen some women’s vulnerabilities and social exclusion.

Measuring Empowerment in the Market Access eNabled by Digital Innovation (MANDI) Project: Baseline Study Report

Grameen Foundation USA (GFUSA) and its Indian subsidiary, Grameen Foundation India (GFI) (together, Grameen) are assisting 40 farmer producer organizations (FPOs) in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh (UP), India through a Walmart Foundation-funded “Market Access eNabled by Digital Innovation” (MANDI) project. The MANDI project aims to strengthen the capacity of 40 select FPOs to connect smallholder farmers (SHFs), especially female farmers, to markets and finance in order to improve their incomes and resilience. The project supports 10,000 SHFs, including at least 4,000 female farmers, working across several value chains such as wheat, paddy, vegetables, and other crops to improve their access to extension services, market opportunities, and financial services.

The Applying New Evidence for Women’s empowerment (ANEW) research led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and funded by the Walmart Foundation also supports Grameen in expanding the scope of research and learning agenda for the MANDI project. With the inclusion and testing of the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index plus Market Inclusion (pro-WEAI +MI) tool, Grameen seeks to test the hypothesis that “fostering intra-household decision-making leads to the improved market orientation of smallholder farmers and women’s engagement and empowerment levels in agriculture”. This report highlights the key findings from a baseline assessment completed in 2021 and outlines some key opportunities and risks that Grameen should consider both from a methodological view and programming view to understanding pro-WEAI+MI results as well as implications of the results for the project activities.