New Delhi: Walmart Foundation, the philanthropy arm of retail major Walmart, on Thursday announced two new grants, totalling USD 4.5 million (around Rs 33.16 crore) to help improve farmer livelihoods in India.
The new grants will help two NGOs -Tanager and PRADAN -to further scale their efforts to help farmers earn more from the improved output and fair market access, Walmart said in a statement.
Both grantees will focus on increasing opportunities for women farmers via farmer producer organisations (FPOs), it added.
In the latest round of Walmart Foundation grants, international non-profit organisation Tanager will receive over USD 2.6 million to extend its Farmer Market Readiness Program and help farmers in Andhra Pradesh.
Delhi-based PRADAN will receive USD 1.9 million to launch its Livelihood Enhancement through Market Access and Women Empowerment (LEAP) program in West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand in eastern India. LEAP will focus on supporting women to work in FPOs to adopt new farming practices, diversify and intensify their output, and embark on profitable farming-related businesses.
“With these two new grants, the Walmart Foundation has invested a total of USD 15 million with eight non-government organizations (NGOs) in India, supporting programs designed to impact more than 1,40,000 farmers, including nearly 80,000 women farmers, to date,” it said.
These new grants are a part of Walmart’s commitment in September 2018, to invest USD 25 million (around Rs 180 crore) over five years for improving farmer livelihoods in India.
