India, July 2022: With an objective to give a boost to the Self-Help Groups (SHG), Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) and the farming community of Andhra Pradesh, Ayekart, India’s first integrated tech platform signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP). As part of the MoU, both the organizations will cooperate in collaborative projects for the commercialization of embedded technology related to Agri and Food processing at various levels of the value chain for boosting the domestic and export of Agri products.
SERP, the Government organization of Andhra Pradesh for Rural Development is dedicated to facilitate poverty reduction through social mobilization and improvement of livelihoods of rural poor in the State. It also aims to create scalable opportunities in rural areas, find digital solutions, skills and guide rural communities to meet their aspirations by building Agri-entrepreneurs. For the purpose, the SERP seek support from Ayekart through MOU to bring model / light house FPOs and input shops run by SHGs on self-sustaining mode and digitizing the SERP rural marts. The strength of this mammoth organization is the unique structure, the community based by organizing with 69,31,113 rural women into 6,52,440 SHGs, 26,753 Village Organizations, 656 Mandal Samakhyas and 13 Zilla Samakhyas.
The signing and exchange of MOU was done between the President, AYEKART and CEO, SERP in the presence of Shri Mutyala Naidu, Hon’ble Dy. Chief Minister and Minister for Panchayat Raj & Rural Development, GoAP and all the SERP team. While acknowledging the great deal of activities by Amit Kumar Singh, particularly in the areas of value addition, strengthening the FPOs by finding markets by harnessing the market potential, the CEO requested and that the SERP is expecting a lot in near future from AYKART in the collaborative areas and in women empowerment. It was reiterated by the President, Ayekart that it will aligns with the objectives of the Government to bring in the desired change in the SME, MSME, Retail segment by “Empowering the Traditional Business” and help in bringing transparency and credibility to the entire ecosystem.
Commenting on the joint initiative, Mr. Debarshi Dutta, Co-founder & CEO, Ayekart said, “We are extremely pleased to announce the signing of this MoU with AP State Government. At Ayekart, one of our key mottos is to digitize the food and Agri value chain of India, help rural FPOs and empower them. We are passionate about the traditional businesses, building an inclusive e-commerce ecosystem and constantly innovate to find new ways to uplift and empower all sections of society, especially MSMEs. This partnership with SERP will be channelized through the FPOs and SHGs of Andhra Pradesh through the digitally synced supply chain and uplift their overall performance, providing required assistance and support through input stores and SERP rural marts. This will provide the local rural farming communities and SHGs to access a wider market for their produce and create a conducive and digital ecosystem while boosting their income via integrating the processes, increasing the variety of farm produce, building market linkages, technical advancement, etc.”
