Diary of a Rural Manager!

VCB-N has launched a series of Webinars on the COVID crises to offer a platform for learning and exchange about the current situation. This is the summary of the webinar on impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on agricultural value chains by VCB Network . Speakers: 1. Mr. Barua Kaushik, Country Director IFAD Cambodia & Mr. Fabrizio Bresciani, Regional Economist IFAD Rome - IFAD perspectives 2. Anirban Bhowmik, Country Director, Swisscontact, Bangladesh – the smallholder farmers and the informal sector perspectives in Bangladesh 3. Mr. Andrew Wilson, Regional Coordinator Market Systems, HELVETAS – The market perspective 4. Prof. Liu Yonggong, China Agricultural University (CAU)- The market perspective from China Summary: 1. The COVID crisis does negatively impact households in three inter-connected areas i) food security ii) income and iii) investment ability. In rural areas, the down-fall of prices has diminished the investment ability thus working capital of smallholder farme...

I have the privilege to attend a webinar on 15th April, Wednesday Navigating Recovery Post COVID-19 for Consumer Food Brands organized by Ankur Capital . The panel had good expertise in FMCG and the food industry. They shared a more comprehensive range of challenges and issues faced by the consumer food brands amid lock-down. I will summarize the webinar in six points: 1. Managing human resources: The legal aspects of managing human movement was relatively easy for the firms. But, a lot of personal communication was established by the leadership team to establish trust between them and employees. There were a lot of queries on the risk involved as the mainstream media has heightened a sense of panic and anxiety. Communication with the employees and all key stakeholders is the key! 2. Organization culture: While business metrics are important, companies should adopt a people-first approach and ensure that the well-being of their employees and customers is the key. The whole cu...

I attended a webinar on 4th April, Saturday Solving for agri procurement and market linkage in times of Covid organized by Hemendra Mathur , Gauri Sarin, Abhilash Thirupathy , Om Routray , Ashish Khetan and Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya . Agenda: The idea is to table the challenges and solutions in the context of upcoming Rabi harvest during and after the lock-down. The focus of discussion will be on post-harvest interventions needed from first mile including farm labor, harvesting, procurement, warehousing and cold chain. The stakeholders likely to join the call are mandi traders, farmer bodies, NBFCs, warehousing, cold chain, logistics companies, agri startups in the market linkage side, industry association etc. Speakers: Anil Kumar SG - Sammunati Jayant Chattarjee (Star Agri ), Pushpendra Singh (Farmer Leader), Khalid Hussain , ITC, Sachin Sharma ITC, Aleen Mukherjee (NCEDX), Aneesh Kumar ( NAFPO ) and Rahul Gupta , Avanti Microfinance Discussion: The focus of the call is...