Fair Trade

Fair Trade Campaign of SVA

Agriculture and collection of NTFP have been two major source of livelihood of the people in Kalahandi, Bolangir, Nuapada and Bargarh districts. Those depending on agriculture have mostly small and marginal land holdings. Farm size is further shrinking due to fragmentation of joint families in to nuclear one. But these small and marginal farmers have a major share not only to the economy of the area but also to the state’s economy. It has also been acknowledged by every one that small and marginal farmers of Orissa particularly of western Orissa are reeling with acute poverty because of the various exploitations mooted on them from different corners. They are striving hard to increase their crop production but due to the nexus of the traders and corrupt officials including policy makers they fail to get a reasonable price for their produces. Millions of poor farmers are dependent on commodities and on the price they receive for their harvest. Many farmers, often without other means of subsistence, are obliged to produce more and more, no matter how low the prices are. The same thing happens in case of non-timber forest produce also. Whether it is their produce or their service they have been always deprived and getting poorer day by day. Despite of various legislations enacted by the Government situation remains unabated due to lack of their organization. Signing of trade agreement with WTO and Economic liberalization has made the situation of our farmers even worse. The poor farmers are unable to understand the impact of the interplay of market forces at global level on them.

To make our farmers free from the negative impacts of globalization SVA has been engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade.

SVA believes that current market prices do not properly reflect the true costs associated with production and only a well-managed stable minimum price system can cover environmental, social and  production costs. SVA's strategic intent is to deliberately work with marginalised producers and workers in order to help them move from a position of vulnerability to security and economic self-sufficiency. It also aims at empowering them to become stakeholders in their own organizations and actively play a wider role in the global arena to achieve greater equity in international trade. SVA intends to build a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, which seeks greater equity in international trade. SVA since its inception has been contributing to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers - especially in these most backward districts of Orissa. Fair trade organizations (backed by consumers) are Fair trade is seen as an attempt to address these proported market failures by providing producers a stable price for their crop, business support, access to premium Northern markets and better general trading conditions.

With the above background SVA facilitated formation of a strong organization of the farmers in those districts i.e Paschim Orissa Krishijeev Sangh (POKS) which in collaboration with other member organizations of SVA could be able to deal various issues relating to agriculture effectively. SVA-POKS jointly launched a campaign in the year 1995-96 called “The Fair Trade Campaign”. The main objective of the campaign is to provide Farmers’ organizations with methods and tools to improve their strategic positioning in relation to local and global change. The strategies to achieve the objective are (i) Improvement of the competitiveness and profitability of agriculture and development of a support structure (ii) Promotion of Sustainable agriculture and conservation of bio-diversity (iii) Establishment of a direct relationship between producers and consumers where both will be mutually benefited. 

Various activities undertaken by SVA during the year 2006-07 in the fair trade campaign are:

1. Promotion of organization of farmers: SVA organized both men and women farmers in to self-help groups and producers’ groups at village level. Subsequently members of SHGs and Producers’ group as well as other members of the community depending on agriculture have been mobilized for membership in Paschim Orissa Krushijeev Sangh (POKS). POKS is a state level forum of farmers and farm dependents. Presently total membership of POKS is more than 50,000 members.

2. Value addition of agricultural and forest produces: SVA provided a number of extensive technical trainings to farmers and collectors of NTFP on harvesting, processing, storage and preservation and packaging of agricultural and forest produces during the year 2006-07. Agricultural produces mainly included onion, arhar and sunflower and Forest produces included Mahua, neem, hill brooms etc. For value addition of rice and oil seeds SVA-POKS have established two rice mill and an oil mill attached to it. They are also facilitating for establishment of food processing units by the farmers. One onion grading machine has also been introduced to farmers doing onion cultivation. During the year SVA also organized few exposure visits to successful enterprises both at local level and outside through POKS.

3. Providing Marketing support: SVA provided the farmers/members of POKS necessary marketing support to get a better price of their produce. It helped them to establish a direct link with the whole sellers to avoid exploitation by the middlemen. It also provided farmers necessary information of different market so as to be able to bargain with the local traders. To make the system sustainable it organized number of interface workshops between farmers and traders. This year onion farmers of the area have been able to sell their produces at Rs 3.00 per kg instead of Rs 2.00 to the middleman.

  To come out of the exploitation of the existing marketing system SVA-POKS and their member organizations have established an alternative system of marketing where both producers (farmers) and consumers (farmers) gain equally. The new system has been named SAHAYOG. SAHAYOG is a chain of independent shops with certain values and are managed by the producers themselves.

4. Introduce technological innovations and develop models: SVA has been able to introduce some innovative technology those are not only efficient and effective but also easy to operate by our farmers. SVA has designed an oil expeller (Jaya Bharati Oil expeller) those are very much used by the local farmers. Farmers instead of selling oilseeds they are extracting oil by the expeller and selling it. By doing this they have been able to raise their income up to Rs 3.00 to Rs 5.00 per kg. Similarly some models of storing onion suitable for commercial purposes as well as domestic purposes have been developed. SAHAYOG is also another innovation of SVA.

5. Taking up of local Issues: During the year 2006-07 SVA-POKS and their member organizations has taken up number of local issues to draw the attention of the government both at the state and center. Local issues include various issues relating to agriculture and also other development issues. In the last few years important issues on agriculture taken up by SVA-POKS are mainly under rate of agri-produces, distress sale, minimum support price, migration, Insurance etc. Other development issues taken up are inclusion of Bargarh district in KBK, Implementation of various employment generation Scheme, and NREGA etc. On the above issues POKS has organized number of rallies, demonstrations and SVA helped them in planning, preparation of IEC materials and mobilizing the media.  

Networking: SVA in its fair trade campaign not only established and strengthened local network but also maintained working relationship with other networks at state, national and International level. By doing this SVA has been able to place local issues in a wider perspective and influence various policies of the government with the interest of the local people.