1. Manthan Topic: Boosting Agricultural
Productivity
Land Co-operative Model to enhance
productivity and sustainability
Team IRMAn:
Sudhir Kumar
Alok Anand
Saptangshu Das
Ratnakar Mahto
Ashish Vihire

2. Problem Statement
Scope of the problem
• Low agricultural productivity
• Livelihood Vulnerability of landless labourers, small and marginal farmers
• Increasing migration and hence mounting pressure in cities
• Problem in getting better return on investment
• Decreasing purchasing capacity of landless labourers, small and marginal farmers
• Decreasing social and economical status of people dependent on agriculture, decreasing social
status
Causes of the problem
• Small land holdings
• Inefficient or nominal use of technology
• Increasing input costs and Poor accessibility of credit
• Poor transporting and storage facilities available
• High dependency on rainfall and poor irrigation facility available
Reason for selecting a specific cause
• Larger impact on landless poor and farmers, decreasing social status and increasing
vulnerability

3. Proposed Innovative solution concept
•Integrated farming cooperative- agriculture and allied sectors
•Identification of 500-800 acre of land at block level(cluster of 4-5 villages)
•Involve landless laborer , marginal farmers, and also medium and large land holding farmers
•For land holding farmers- option of either being member or just leasing out their land for a lump sum
amount .
•Diversified crop production along with horticulture , floriculture, fisheries, cattle rearing etc.
•Promotion to use of bio fertilizers and organic farming
•Processing facilities at district level
•Branding and marketing of processes produce at state level
•An standard wage for respective work to cooperative members.
•Proportion of profit to land owner if they are member of cooperative
•Skill training to members and hence involve them in various operating functions of cooperatives
Merit of proposed solution with existing system
•Through out the year Job opportunities for landless and marginal farmers
•Benefit of combined agriculture with respect to fragmented lands
•Check on migration with skill involvement and job opportunities for local youths
•Promotion to allied farm sectors
•Credit facilities by government and banks.
•Technological and expertise supports
•Secure Storage and transportation at block level and hence less wastage of agricultural produce
•Processing facilities at district level, better price realization to producers
•Value addition and branding at state level
•Risk of single farmers get reduced

4. Snapshot of solution proposed
State Level
District Level
Block Level

5. Impact of Farming Co-operative
o It can check Migration of landless people.
o It can provide permanent livelihood option for landless and marginal farmer.
oIncrease the Productivity at block level by using combined and effective use of agriculture and its
advanced techniques.
oJob Opportunity and skill enhancement to village level youth.
o Storage and Transport Facility enhancement to avoid major losses of Agricultural products.
Sustainability
oProfit margin can be increase by effective use of common resources for agriculture.
oFlow of money will be ensured at basic grass root level.
oSelf sufficiency in long term.
Scalability
oMany members and farmlands will be available at co-operative level.
oAdvanced Storage Unit for large products with transportation facility.
oExpansion of Processing units at district level
oBrand strengthening, self marketing and Selling of product at state level.

6. Monitoring
• Self managed at the block level by co-operative
• Committee.
• Local youth with basic education and proper training will control administrative work at block
level
• District level professional would be included.

7. Implementation of Solution
• Initially we would identify the villages with a large population of landless and marginal
farmers having small fragments and undergoing a problem of low productivity and loss due to
storage.
• Then we would take farmlands on lease specially from those who are having small pieces of
land as well as big holdings and merge them up together to form a co-operative farmland.
• This co-operative body would span a domain of 5-6 villages in one cluster which we would
name a block.
• Mass storage facility will be set-up at the block level that cater to needs of the 5-6 villages
combined.
• Transportation facility will also be provided at block level.
• Processing and value-addition would be done to crop produces to increase its shelf life and
market acceptability in some cases like in the case of fruits,tea,plantations etc.

8. Human resources
• Landless laborers ( village level)
• Small and marginal farmers.( village level )
• Medium and large land holding farmers (optional).( village level)
• Technical expertise and assistance specially with logistics and administration at the
block level.
• Graduate professionals at the district and state levels.

9. Infrastructure
• Identifying the existing storage facilities, prevailing irrigation facilities and boost it up with
new ones if required.
• Tie up with KRISHI VIGYAN KENDRA(KVK’S) and agriculture universities.
( this is for technical assistance like soil testing, HYV variety seeds , fertilizers etc. )
Finance
• We need agricultural machinery and storage space.
• Set-up of co-operative at block and district level for various input activities and administrative
purposes, salary’s etc.
• Bank loans etc.

10. Challenges and Mitigation Factors
Economic Challenges
• High initial investment to
buy machinery.
• collection of funds
Political Challenges
• Factions within the village
• Vested interest of local ,
district level officials
Social Challenges
• To convince local people for
land co-operative.
• Co-operative management at
Block level
• Involvement of all strata of
villagers
Technological Challenges
• Technical expertise at village level
• Availability of alternatives as per the
soil fertility
• Procurement of perishable items for
long time
Environmental Challenges
• Dependency on rainfall
• Water level depletion
• Soil quality degradation

11. Mitigation plan
• Already existing Successful model of co-operatives(e.g. milk co-operative) in different
regions will help to convince farmers for group farming.
• Co-operative management will be done by the hierarchy structure
• Landless labors, marginal farmers and high end farmers involvement because of high rate of
returns and low investment.
• Use of already existent common agriculture machinery within the village to reduce the initial
investment
• Co-operative loans and subsidies to establish storage and processing units.
• Low involvement of government officials at all the levels
• Training to local people at village level
• Recruitment of expertise staff will be done at block and processing level.
• Installation of cold storage facilities with new technologies
• Water storage during the rainy season.
• Crop rotation and crop mixing as per the soil quality