-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
1/19
EnvironmentethicsequilibriumSiddharth Tripathy1
Before the beginningGosaai Pawar has been dead for more than a decade now. The suicide of this cotton
farmer had hit many a headlines in the media. And one can only wonder the state of
dj-vu his soul must be experiencing witnessing the present plight of cotton farmers
in India.
What is common between Death Trap, Fatal Attraction, Killer Crop, Pollution
Peril, Suicide Hotspots, Tangled Web & Torn Fabric? No, they are not just big
budgeted suspense thrillers from Hollywood, but nom de plume for COTTON in the
last decade or so in India, which ironically has also been widely acknowledged as
White Gold around the world.
Resource poor farmers from semi-arid regions of India (especially Vidarbha,
Telangana & Western Orissa) have been existing in abject socio-economic conditions
facing a barrage of predicaments in form of natural vagaries, high input dependence,
indebtedness, market distortions, corporatization of agriculture and a single window
clearance from all such woes suicide.
1Manager Communications & PR, Hyderabad
1
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
2/19
Though grown in grossly 5% -6% (nearly 9.6-10 mHa 2) of total cropped area, cotton
accounts for more than 50% of all toxic chemical pesticides usage in India, making
the pesticide industry in India churn out newer molecules everyday thereby becoming
the largest such sector in Asia & 12th largest in the world. This coupled with mono-
cropping practices has not only caused tremendous stress on natural eco-system, but
also led to pollution of soils & ground water, resulting in depleting soil health, pest
resistance and resurgence (making the American Bollworm a household name in the
farming community), increased costs of cultivation and water use (~1,300-2,000 liters
per plant) and most importantly leading to major health problems and subsequent
fatalities among labor (esp. women & children) & farmers alike through acute &
chronic poisoning.
Despite such apparent difficulties cotton continues to be the most popular cash crop in
these regions and farmers irrespective of their socio-economic status choose to
cultivate it with a deliberate amnesia of past experience and innocent hope for a new
fruitful season.
What is it then that makes cotton a cynosure for agricultural communities across the
country since the past green revolution to the present gene revolution?
Why does it repeatedly hit the headlines in both national & international media
entailing heated debates in Indian parliament and an intermittent uneasiness in Civil
Society Organizations in and across the country?
Or in simpler terms, why do the farmers choose to cultivate cotton in the first place?
The answers to this are not so easy but also not too difficult to comprehend
Elementary reasons for such a behavior can be attributed primarily to the agro-
climatic conditions of these places, which is unsuitable for cultivation of other cash
crops (excepting some cereals, pulses and recently soy) and more significantly due to
the fact that cotton fetches immediate monetary benefits for these cash crunched
farmers. The increase in area under cotton cultivation over the years in India is
testimonial to this very fact.
The beginning
It is under the above mentioned context that Chetna Organic spun off in the year 2004
as an Organic & Fair Trade supply chain initiative in the semi-arid & predominantly2 Million Hectares
2
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
3/19
tribal regions of Andhra Pradesh (Telangana), Maharashtra (Vidarbha) and Western
Orissa (Kalahandi & Bolangir) with a vision to improve the livelihood options of
small farm holding households involved in cotton cultivation through making their
farming systems more sustainable and more profitable.
The key factors, all interlinked for such an intervention, can be summed up as under:
Lack of Self-Organization in the farming sector;
Intensive dependence on external factors;
Grave ecological degradation due to conventional methods of cotton farming;
Inadequate resources (institutional, social, economic & technical);
Prevalence of health hazards in conventional cotton farming;
Forced migration of farming communities with farming becoming an unviable
profession;
Given these apparent lacunae in the agrarian scenario, Chetna Organic conceived to
address them by developing Short, Mid & Long term goals and concrete
objectives, which were then implemented by a rich pool of human resources with
expertise ranging from socio-technical extension services, policy & advocacy,
monitoring & evaluation to marketing & international trade.
Purpose of Intervention
As a primary objective of the project it was envisaged that farmers should own the
process; make informed decisions and have stakes in the supply chain. It was in this
spirit that Chetna Organic Farmers Association (COFA) was registered as a
national level farmers organization in Hyderabad under the Societies Act 2001. The
underlying philosophy of COFA was to support farmers in adopting low external
input based sustainable farming and exploring/facilitating ethical market linkages to
their primary produce after value addition. COFAworks directly for the benefit of its
smallholder member farmers, who without a common organized platform would be in
3
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
4/19
a precarious position.
With the influx of farmers and volumes of produce growing over years, it was felt that
COFA should necessarily have an arm specifically dedicated to trading and market
linkages. As a result, a national level producers owned company, namely Chetna
Organic Agriculture Producer Company (COAPCL) was promoted in February
2009 under Part IX A of the Companies Act 1956.
COAPCL in principle is a completely farmer owned commodity trading company
working towards providing a fair business alternative through best possible market
prices and transparent business practices to Chetna farmers. Although promoted on a
trade-platform, it complements COFAs work towards improving livelihood of
farmers through encouraging collective marketing of organic produce and moving up
the value chain via collaboration with value chain constituents, who are sensitized
towards forming a fair and sustainable business relationship with farmers.
On a global level COFA & COAPCL work in partnership and hold membership with
international labeling initiatives such as Made-By (www.made-by.nl), Max Havelaar,
Fair Trade Foundation (UK), IFOAM, Organic Exchange
(www.organicexchange.org) and others in building ethical supply chains. At the
domestic level, they actively collaborate with initiatives like Non Pesticide
Management Initiative (NPMI), Shop for Change (SFC) and other like minded
consortiums that work for developing domestic markets.
The transition from a project mode in 2004 with barely 236 farmers to over 9000
farmers under the Chetna flag is self explanatory of its growth-which doesnt only
center on figures but more significantly in the dissemination of its concept. With more
than 35,000 acres of land under organic farming out of which around 17,000 to
20,000 acres is under cotton and with an expected yield of 76,500 to 90,000 quintals
of clean cotton in addition to organically certified non-cotton crops such as Pulses
(Red Gram, Green Gram, Black Gram and Bengal Gram), Soy, Paddy, Vegetable and
Non Timber Forest Produce, it becomes apparent that farmers have internalized the
importance of sustainable farming and ethical trade.
While we talk of acreage and yields, it becomes imperative to mention that Chetna
promotes sustainable farming, which incorporates rotational cropping patterns. Thus
4
http://www.made-by.nl/http://www.organicexchange.org/http://www.made-by.nl/http://www.organicexchange.org/ -
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
5/19
farmers from Chetna shift their main crop from cotton to any other crop based on the
agro-climatic conditions of the region. This also addresses a major issue of food
security among small and marginal farmers who are prevented from choosing a
cropping pattern out of sheer market-centric demands and dynamics. Thus, arriving
at fixed figures for acreage and thereby production becomes paradoxical to the very
vision of promoting a bio-diverse and sustainable farming model. Having said this, it
remains a fact that acreage and production increase with the number of new farmers
joining the program over a period of time.
The journey: Power of Aggregation
On a May afternoon, Purna Sabar, a marginal tribal farmer braves the mercury, as he
stands at the threshold of his hut with his eyes riveted to the clouds arranging his
destiny in the sky. He awaits the rains, as do his wife & son. A little later the family is
seen at the field, preparing their land for a new farming season.
Fast-forward six months Purna hires a bullock cart to load his cotton produce
under the fastidious and eager scrutiny of his wife. What lies ahead is a daylong
journey to the nearest cotton procurement center through almost non-existent roads.
On the cards is a barrage of predicaments ranging from confrontations with local
trader to a labyrinth of malfunctioning like weighing, grading and an arduously long
wait at the procurement center.
The near past also has not been too pleasant, with his cotton stocked shabbily in his
hut inviting multifaceted contamination, eventually leading to a loss in quality, or
rather loss in money to be precise. If ever Purna wishes to certify his product as
organic he has to part with his annual income as the inspecting fees along with a fact
he may not qualify for certification due to the norms of certifying bodies regarding
landholding size(s).
5
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
6/19
Beset with such problems, a cross section of portraits across small and marginal
farmers in India would be identical. These problems in fact raise some nagging
questions like
How does an individual farmer manage the economics & quality of input
requirements?
How does an individual farmer market her/his produce?
How does S/he negotiate with the local trader (middleman) to avoid an
inevitable debt-trap?
How does S/he manage to decipher the complexities of market dynamics?
How does S/he maintain quality of the produce?
How does an individual farmer avail certification given the costs and rigging
norms?
Finally who assures a fair price?
It is here that the power of aggregation and its benefits to the poor gets highlighted.
For a farmer to trade his/her produce without getting exploited, it becomes profoundly
significant that s/he is adequately informed of the business nuances of agri-
commodity trading. But in a country like India, assuming such a possibility is utopian.
An invaluable question that surfaces then is what is a feasible alternative?
It is on this very premise that Chetna recognized the significance of an organized farm
sector right from its inception. This had to be achieved by harmonizing a matrix of
interrelated variables that ranged from understanding and affecting farmers psyche to
acknowledging the presence of other stakeholders in the chain like ginners, spinners,
garment manufacturers and brands. At the outset, it was a major impediment to
convince resource poor farmers in converting to organic. Farmers were highly
skeptic about such interventions by outsiders because of which we decided to work
with local partners says a project staff indicating the decentralized mode of
operations at Chetna.
With active collaboration from local civil society organizations and government
6
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
7/19
agencies, the project strategically identified individuals who had been practicing
organic farming to influence the skeptic and indecisive farmers. This approach of peer
group knowledge transfer worked out to be effective, as farmers got attracted to the
low input3 cost of organic cotton cultivation and a reasonable assurance of better
markets.
The pressure from debtors such as fertilizer and pesticide suppliers and dealers
adds uncontrollable tension in our lives and is a very traumatic experience! Organic
farming, in the first instance, reduces this tension significantly. We had heard about
organic farming but were not sure of the process and the results, but when we
realized that at least we would be free from the pressure of debtors who are at our
doorstep almost daily, we thought it is worth a try a cotton farmer from Vidarbha
confessed.
But the road ahead was not all too rosy. In the first year of operations, barely 236
farmers with hardly 588 acres of land under organic cotton cultivation stood under the
Chetna flag. These figures clearly indicate the cautious mindset of small farmers
regarding converting to organic despite the lure of better market and enhanced prices.
But the socio-technical extension given to farmers neither harbored on highlighting
the monetary gains nor was up-scaling of acreage to meet economies of scale an
important motive of the project.
3Low input agriculture meaning lesser borrowings from traders and moneylenders and consequently a
reduced debt burden.
7
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
8/19
The project recognized the
importance of stable foundations
for a sustainable structure and
thus focused intensely on
enhancing the capacities of
partner NGO staff and grass root
level organizations. Farmers who
learned the basics of organic
agriculture at the Farmer Field
Schools (FFS) were also exposed
to the benefits of collective
community action. Consequently,
20 25 member farmers from
each
project
village
federated to form village level self-help groups. These groups were in turn federated
to form farmer cooperatives, which at the national level conglomerated to form the
national level farmers association and a producers company. The three-tier democratic
8
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
9/19
structure of Chetna with member farmers from different regions on its Board is
intended to promote informed decision making at the farmers level thereby enabling
them to own the process rather than remain mute recipients in the supply chain.
We take pride in establishing COFA with the assistance of our staff and support
agencies. COFA as a platform not only helps us to voice concerns, share space in the
textile supply chain and understand its complexities, but also helps us to have better
negotiation position says Kusum Rao, the President of COFA Board, who himself is
a tribal organic farmer from Choupenguda, AP.
Beyond the initial steps: Mainstreaming the marginal
Advancing on the same lines, Chetna Organic has developed an integrated ethical
supply chain from farm to fabrics with dedicated and committed partners in each
processing stage till the products reach the shops shelf. In what could be deemed as
an innovative model of vertical collaboration, brands linked to Chetna are investing in
social developmental projects for the farming community benefits. A warehouse &
promotion of womens group nursery by Jackpot (Danish Fashion brand) & an Eco
center for optimal use of cow urine & manure for local production of bio-fertilizers &
pesticides supported by Coyuchi (US Brand) & Rajlakshmi Cotton Mills Ltd
(Garmenting Unit partner) are a couple of examples of such initiatives.
With an Organic/Conversion cotton acreage of over 17,000 to 20,000 acres and an
average yield of 4.5 quintals/acre of cotton, Chetna Organic is a unique model of
collective marketing which ensures a fair price for its farmers through value addition
to the primary produce and support in socio-technical extension services from the
sowing stages to post harvest management to comply to third party certification
standards.
Chetna Farmers not only get an added premium over the fair price due to the group
certification availed, they also benefit from better negotiations with the buyer(s) in a
buyer-seller meet facilitated by Chetna, saving on transport costs and warehousing
facilities. Although nascent, the fruits of these perseverant efforts reflect in the
business over the years as shown
9
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
10/19
Organic Cotton Turnover till date:
2006-07 2007-08 2008-09
Turn Over ofCotton Sale (in
INR)
INR 2.0 Crores INR 3.7 Crores INR 4.5 Crores
Chetna has always endeavored to provide better and fair prices to the farmers for their
cotton produce. The following table and graph is a price comparison between the
market and prices as paid by Chetna to its farmers
Price Comparison: Market versus Chetna Price:
2006 2007 2008 2009
Market Price 1950 2058 2857 3071
Chetna Prices 2200 2500 3350 3350
10
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
2006 2007 2008 2009
Market Prices Chetna Prices
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
11/19
Its evident from the figures that Chetnas marketing intervention has helped farmers
in getting a fair return for their produce. To quantify, on an average, the incremental
advantage to farmers in selling cotton has been to the tune of 15-20%. Additionally,
selling cotton through Fair Trade system involves a premium of approximately
INR340 per quintal over the base price of cotton, which the farmer groups receive for
use in community benefit activities. Development of a nursery and a pre-primary
school through realizing such premiums are a couple of apt examples of realizingcommunity benefit through trade.
11
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
12/19
Similarly, farmers benefit by sales of non-cotton crops, through inherent premiums
that accrue in form
of savings in
transport to local
markets, labor
charges, losses due
to non-standard
weighing machines
with traders etc
which translates to a
tune of 5-10%.
Marketing @Ethics
To illustrate the monetary benefit to a farmer better in the year 2009-10, Chetna
purchased cotton from its farmers in AP at a base cost of 3350 per quintal. This
purchase was done at the farm gate hence the company incurred an additional cost of
INR 150 per quintal for transport to the nearest Gin. Consequently the effective price
to farmer (at farm gate) was INR 3500 per quintal as against an average of INR
3050 per quintal that the farmer received from the conventional market. This
translates into a direct 14% premium over the conventional market for the Chetna
farmer.
Similarly, farmers from Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh) sold 140 quintals of red gram to
COAPCL at the rate of INR 3500 per quintal at their village point. Additionally the
company has agreed to share a portion of any gross profits made on the sale with the
Adilabad farmers co-operative thus ensuring a premium for them. A similar deal in
the conventional market would have happened at the market yard (and not village
point) an estimated INR 25 to 50 per quintal cost for transportation (depending on
distance) and without a profit sharing agreement.
12
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
13/19
Transparency: Innovativeness of Chetna
Transparency across the value chain is a key USP of Chetna Organic and its partner
companies and hence a lot of emphasis is laid on ensuring traceability in movement of
cotton. The following step by step process followed by COAPCL explains how
transparency in movement of cotton is maintained:-
Step 1: Cotton comes from farmers house to village level godown.
Transparency is maintained by ensuring all cotton is transported in cotton bags
(of maximum 50 kgs weight) with a label on each bag mentioning farmer
name, unique farmer code, farmer village and cluster details, seed variety
used, staple length, organic status (IC41, IC2 or A grade) etc. This helps trace
cotton back to the farmer.
Step 2: Cotton when transported to the Gin is heaped in separate lots
differentiated as per organic status, seed variety and location (cluster from
which cotton is procured). This helps maintain separation and non-mixing of
cotton.
Step 3: Different heaps are taken separately for ginning and post ginning
cotton is stored in separate rooms to ensure differentiation. Similarly, such
ginned cotton is separately taken further for pressing and each bale is then
numbered with a unique press running number (PR Number).
In addition to the above, documentation such as (i) gin incoming registers, (ii) process
flow registers, (ii) bale records etc help trace a bale of cotton to the region it has come
from, its seed variety and also the organic status.
Similar transparency in cotton movement is maintained across all levels of Chetna
Supply Chain. In fact, Chetna and its supply chain partners subscribe to Made-Bystrack and trace program where each garment sold by a Made-By brand is traceable
to its source, primarily because of the measures for traceability taken by Chetna and
its supply chain partners.
Chetna maintains quality checks to avoid two types of contamination
(i) Contamination with non-organic produce and
4IC: Cotton under conversion from conventional to organic under certification norms
13
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
14/19
(ii) Foreign fibre contamination.
To address the first issue, stringent standards have been maintained right at the farm
level. For instance non-allowance of part and parallel farming with non-organic
practices (since handling typically is done together and hence there is a high chance of
contamination when stored at homes), insistence on maintenance of adequate buffer
levels, planting of border crops, specific care taken during handling of produce, use of
systems to maintain traceability (as explained above) etc are some of the ways in
which we ensure that there is no contamination between organic and other cotton.
To address the issue of foreign fibre contamination, all farmers are trained annually
(before harvest) on clean picking practices, clean storage of seed cotton. Similarly
insistence on transport of cotton in cotton bags, proper heaping and separate ginning
of cotton etc ensure there is no contamination through foreign fibres.
Additionally, uniformity and quality in physical properties of cotton are addressed
through measures such as
i) Assistance in seed selection;
ii) Training on productivity improvement;
iii) Linkages with local government subsidies for bio fertilizers, composts etc;
iv) Conducting exposure visits for farmer education on best practices in cottonfarming to help ensure good quality of cotton that comes from Chetna
farms.
At the same time a dual quality checking process once at the village level by Chetna
staff and second time at the Gin coupled with farmer traceability through bags and
labels helps detect & eliminate low quality cotton and also identification of errant
farmers which accordingly leads to modification of procurement policy.
Developmental Impact: Beyond Trade
Apart from these tangible benefits to poor farming communities, Chetnas body of
work is of key importance in addressing issues of environmental concern, gender
equity, bio-diversity food security and seed sovereignty.
A little retrospection on traditional Indian agriculture would highlight the importance
of women in farming households as being the harbingers of seed conservation. With
the advent of mono-cropping culture however multinational seed companies have
14
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
15/19
almost monopolized the seed sector in India, thereby fringing on women from playing
this pivotal role.
Organic system of farming is the backbone of Chetnas activities, borne out of an
inherent respect for environment and a strong realization of the enormous ecological
impact sustainable farming could have on nature. Some of the major benefits of this
model can be illustrated as under -
1. Benefits of Composting and Vermin Composting Practices:
a. Organic manures are the main sources of nutrients for soil microbes
thus keeping the soil alive;
b. Efficient utilization of farm wastes (recycling of nutrients) and natural
resources which otherwise would be just thrown off or burnt thus
destroying the valuable nutrients;
c. Water holding capacity of the soil improves thus enhancing the
drought tolerance efficiency of crops;
d. Fully decomposed organic manures are rich in antifungal and bacterial
antagonists thus helpful in pests and diseases management naturally
reducing the pressure to use any chemical pesticides;
2. Benefits of growing green manure plants such as Glyricidia, Pongamea,
Cassia Siamea etc
a. In addition to the obvious use of these bio-mass as manure for organic
farming, they help improve bio-diversity and plant cover in the region
b. They also harbor birds which while helping reduce pests on one hand
also help reducing need for chemical pesticides, and in improving
environmental balance in the area
c. Some of these plants also serve as source of firewood, thus reducing
dependency of farmers on forests for firewood, in the process aiding
curbing of deforestation.
3. Benefits of adopting practices such as Crop Rotation, Inter-Cropping, border
crops and Trap Crops
a. Improve soil fertility through maintenance of nitrogen balance in the
15
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
16/19
soil
b. Aids pest management through harboring of natural enemy of pests -
like birds, spiders etc
In addition to above, Chetna has also been involved in allied programs which
complement the primary objective of improving livelihoods of disadvantaged farming
communities while not compromising on any hazards to natural ecosystems. Indo-
German Watershed Development Program (IGWDP) in collaboration with NABARD
in rain-fed regions of Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh) is one such effort towards better
management of water resources. In semblance to this Chetna is also a member of the
Western Orissa NREGS Consortium, where it provides its support for an optimal
utilization of existing government schemes.
Other significant impacts
Benefits of Institution Building Intervention: The biggest benefit for
farmers, till date, has been the coming together as SHGs and Co-operatives,
which has enabled collective action for Community benefit. So be it managing
the entire logistics of agriculture produce marketing (hitherto the preserve of
middlemen), or building of local level infrastructure for community use andfurtherance of their occupation (such as building sanitation facilities, schools
for their children, storage ware houses, pulses processing units, resource
centers for village women, local bio gas units etc) from the fair trade premium
they get out of cotton sales.
Benefits of Technical Extension: The production risk for farmers is mitigated
to a large extent due to the regular technical support and training provided to
Chetna farmers on a range of issues such as soil fertility management, use of
composts and bio-fertilizers, organic pest management, selection of seed, best
practices to contain damage due to natures vagaries etc. Practices which are
scientific but do not take toll on the environment and the farmers health.
Policy and Advocacy work: Chetna has also been an active campaigner in
policy and advocacy work for the benefit of farming community in general.
So work/participation by Chetna on issues such as seed availability
16
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
17/19
(availability of preferred seeds for sowing), commodity marketing policies by
state governments, national level discussion on genetically modified crops,
certification standards and audit procedures for organic have contributed
towards making the farming environment more conducive for farmers.
Sustainability of the model
Although it remains uncontested that since its inception in 2004, Chetna has seen a
growth both in numbers and dissemination of its concept, but more imperatively, it
has been flexible enough to modify its modus operandi with lessons learnt from each
successive farming season. In fact this has been the key to its sustenance. In other
words, it has always had Plan-B to counter any probable failure of its primary Plan-
A. The following table illustrates how Chetna develops a fall-back wall for
mitigating any problems that might prove detrimental to its sustainability
S.no Risk Mitigation strategy
1 Cotton yields
may fall below
expectations
Cotton yields expectations have been kept conservative
with the intention of accounting for a possible yield
shortage due to unfavourable climate.
2 The Cottonpurchased may
not be able to sell
at a FT or higher
price
CHETNA, as a practice, always purchases cotton onlybased on prior written commitments from its buyers.
However, due to fluctuations in global economic
conditions, such a possibility cannot be entirely ruled out.
However, in such case the downside risk for CHETNA is
limited to a 15-20% loss, which is what the likely premium
is over conventional market rates for CHETNA Cotton.
3 Threat from BT
with the
continuousonslaught of BT
cotton, farmers
may transition to
using of BT
which could
jeopardise the
commercial
plans of
COAPCL
CHETNA has been taking measures to preserve farmers,
from migrating to Bt, being done through providing
alternate services such as facilitating of untreated seeds,facilitating yield increases, promoting backyard farming
and NREGA activities etc.
CHETNA also actively engages in Anti-GM campaigns
nationally & globally.
4 Default bybuyers when
Considering the risk potential of such a sale, CHETNAonly sells to trusted buyers or potential buyers it knows
17
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
18/19
making
payments for
cotton
well directly or through its networks. Additionally, except
for the regular buyers (who have been associated with
Chetna for the last 5 years) CHETNA sells cotton to new
buyers only against an LC or a 50% advance.
5 CHETNA may
incur a loss in
marketing of
Non-Cotton
crops
Based on COAPCLs study of the pulses market for the
last two years and also participation in a small way, the
company now understands basic dynamics of the market
and hence is less likely to make a loss. However, losses
due to unforeseen circumstances such as government
regulations on grain storage, imports by NAFED etc cannot
be entirely ruled out
6 CHETNA may
face losses from
currency
fluctuations
At the moment, while CHETNA does pitch its marketing
efforts towards an international clientele the delivery of
goods and consequent invoices are raised on Indian supply
chain partners of global brands. As a result, payments are
all made in Indian Rupees, thus minimising risk of foreign
exchange fluctuations
Conclusion
In a nutshell, Purna & many more are not only a part of this aggregated marketing
arrangement, but also owners of a metamorphosis towards a more organized farming
sector, where grassroots farmer institutions have enhanced capacities to take
informed decisions and have a fair say in a value chain of cotton production.
Needless to mention that the journey from its inception till now has not been without
hurdles. While Chetna stumbled at some, it successfully crossed over others with
support from International Not-for-Profit Organizations like Solidaridad & ICCO
(Netherlands), Ford Foundation (India), national NGOs, relevant Government
agencies and all partners in the value chain. Its rather redundant to mention that a
process of social engineering needs time, and Chetna is a journey just begun; having
said that it needs to be added that with a passionate staff, committed partners and new
developmental agencies evincing interest in this process, the future looks promising
despite the inevitability of more hurdles in times to come. Conclusively, by a radical
vision of aggregating smallholder farmers and their produce, Chetna has ensured
that the primary producer decides
WHAT TO SELL?
18
-
8/7/2019 CAse StudyETHICS-ENVIRONMENT-EQUILIBRIUM-Siddharth Tripathy
19/19
WHERE TO SELL?
FOR WHAT PRICE?
9