Groups of small farmers and artisans often work within a larger organisation to access support services. These larger organisations are called Community Based Enterprises, and IRFT equips them with the knowledge and training to give the best possible support to their members. Now that’s working together.
CBEs often find it difficult to compete in the mainstream economy because of their lack of knowledge concerning markets, planning, design, strategy, process, etc. At IRFT, we work with these groups to improve their business performance, build their organisational capacity, and access profitable markets. We believe that by supporting the sustainability and growth of these businesses we help make the lives of small producer sustainable.
Our services cover:
Marketing:
IRFT conducts marketing research that encompasses sales analyses, market information for domestic and export, and strategy & planning. We also provide market trainings, which involved networking, market exposure, and customer relations management.
Finance:
IRFT works with producer organizations to analyze and re-structure their finances to better establish accounting and budgeting procedures, costing and pricing of products, and conduct ratio analyses.
Production:
When in comes to production, IRFT ensures that organizations are incorporating the latest innovations in product development and design, are managing quality, packaging, and process analyses, and are working with others one technical knowledge transfers.
General Management:
IRFT encourages the development of a general management infrastructure in all producer organizations, conducting trainings on information systems, organizational strategy and structure, human resource development, development interventions, staff development and training, and strategic business planning.
Brand Building:
Based on IRFT extensive knowledge helping small organizations market their products, we work with producers on branding and labeling their products for mass-market appeal.
Networking:
IRFTs unparalleled network across the country helps to identify supply sources, distributions networks, financial associates, technical know-how, potential markets and even business ideas for community-based organization.
Fundraising:
IRFT encourages producer groups to find innovative fundraising sources, assists in the proposal writing process, and links funders to small organizations.
We work in various sectors ranging from handicrafts, textiles, processed foods, and agricultural produce (both organic and conventional)
BR is a voluntary initiative to help the victims of 1984 Gas tragedy, in their struggle to survive. As a process towards resolving conflicts and minimizing the disaster, BR was initiated by Union Carbide Company, appointing their own staff. It was basically to create employment opportunities and redeem from other effects of the disaster. The organisation is working in the area of leather crafts and related areas as base with the home furnishing, fashion accessories and corporate gifting etc. IRFT has been working with them since 2000 in the areas of capacity building, market linkages and export promotion. With the IRFT assistance, the organization took Fair Trade as their method of operation as they grew. In mid 1993 the turnover was 9.4 lakhs, which has crossed 80 lakhs by 2005.
Agrocel Industries was started in 1988 by the Excel Group of Companies at Mandvi-Kutch with the objective of providing latest agro inputs and technical guidance to farmers in order to increase productivity. Their activities include distribution of agro inputs such as seeds, organic manures and pesticides, technical inputs through field personnel, organic farming promotion and marketing support. The products include organic and near-to-organic cotton fibre, yarn, T-shirts, nuts, rice, pulses, sugar, spices etc. IRFT provided them capacity building inputs, market linkages and market research.
Ahmedabad Women’s Action Group was established in 1981 with the objective of women’s development and empowerment in Ahmedabad. The income generation activities were started by the organisation to provide regular employment. They do work for other manufacturing units, as well as make their products like file-folders, furnishings, pouches, etc. IRFT became associated with them to strengthen their capacity in product development and market access. We also linked AWAG with FabIndia.
PRADAN was established in 1983. PRADAN currently works in selected villages in 26 districts across 7 states through small teams based in the field. The focus of its work is to promote and strengthen livelihoods for the rural poor. This involves organizing them, enhancing their capabilities, introducing ways to improve their incomes and linking them to banks, markets and other economic services. PRADAN has partnered with IRFT to build the capacity of their income generation activities (mushroom cultivation) in Madhya Pradesh. We successfully completed market research for mushrooms in order to find out new markets for mushrooms grown by beneficiaries of PRADAN and we have developed a distribution chain for mushrooms in major markets like Mumbai, Pune, etc. We have also linked PRADAN with cooperatives like APNA Bazaar.
Mahiti is a grassroots level non government development organization working in the most backward coastal region for socially and economically exploited and disadvantaged communities of Gujarat called Bhal. Right from inception it has prioritized women and gender issues in disaster prone Bhal frequented by earthquake, floods, and drought. The organization evolved from its ‘grassroots group’ orientation to a full-fledged institution. People of Bhal relate with Mahiti as an organization created and nurtured by them. Presently it works with almost around 6000 women members and are in process of initiating income generation activities in Bhal region. IRFT has undertaken a study for identification of viable income generation activities in the given region. IRFT has also prepared action plan cum strategies for implementing the identified activity. Along with MAHITI, IRFT is played major supportive agency role while implementing the Income generation programmes
SHC was started in 1978 and registered as charitable trust in 1981. The organization is working in the area of textiles as base with home furnishing, garments and fashion garment accessories as their product area. Earlier the products were mainly for the export market, which has shifted to 50% domestic and 50% exports. During the last financial year it has crossed a turnover Rs. 1 crore. IRFT ‘s has associated with CC Shroff since its inception. IRFT has played a major role in organisation development, organization’s strategies and structure and staff development of CC Shroff centre. In accordance to improve the performance of business, we have developed the efficient internal management systems such as Process Analysis, Quality Management, pricing & costing etc..
Sneh Samruddhi Mandal is an NGO working towards women empowerment and development through SHG formation in the rural areas of Maharashtra. These women are mostly tribals and live below poverty line. Sneh Samruddhi Mandal also supports these SHGs to start up Income Generation Activities such as making of Papad, Pickle, Flour etc. It also involves itself into distribution of the regular daily needs and ration to the members of SHGs at reasonable cost. IRFT always look forward to work with such organisation working at the rural regions. We have associated with Sneh Samrudhi for capacity building of women members in the area of skill up gradation – technical - value addition and managerial, planning and managing of income generation activity and marketing.
Dharampur Utthan Vahini (DHRUVA) was founded by BAIF with the objective of bringing about sustainable improvement in the lives of tribals in the hilly areas of Dharampur, Kaprada and Vansda located in South Gujarat. Dhruva operates through Vasundhara, which is the largest co-operative of Navsari District with 2300 members. Vasundhara’s core activities are value addition to the agricultural produce of the farmers and subsequent marketing with a focus on employment generation and tribal upliftment. IRFT has been working with them on providing technical inputs as well as building managerial capacity and have also undertaken market research and market linkage activity
Kalyani Mahila Grih Udyog is a co-operative based in Gujarat (Udhwada) . It is a rural initiative of the SNDT University with special focus on rural women. Their skill lies into tailoring and block printing. We, the IRFT were associated with this organisation for their Organisational development and Market linkages. Today Kalyani-cooperative managed to retained those clients and have successfully become financially sustainable.
Sahaj Handicrafts, started in 1989, is an effort to empower Adivasi women of Eastern Gujarat through income generation. Their skills are bamboo and bead work, and the products include jewelery, decorations, utilities and accessories.IRFT works with them on providing capacity building inputs like design, pricing and costing, marketing and export promotion. By providing successful capacity building inputs we are able to create a space for their products in market.
Aga khan Rural support programme (India), AKRSP (I), is a non-denominational, non- government development organization (NDGO). It works as a catalyst for the betterment of rural communities by providing direct support to local communities to promote activities and develop models for sustainable natural resource use and development of human resources. IRFT has undertaken market research and feasibility study for them in the sub sector of Dairy, Polutry, Fisheries and Bamboo to provide livelihood to 1000s of producer members.
Utthan Development Action Planning Team is a registered society and public trust based at Ahmedabad, started in 1981 in the costal Bhal region of Gujarat. It encourages community groups to undertake situation friendly income generating activities such as Charcoal making, using oil drums and the locally available resources .IRFT have undertaken the feasibility studies for possible income generation programmes in Bhavnagar, Rajula and Limkheda region.
Pragati is a voluntary organisation, established in the year 1992. Action area of Pragati is rural in nature, predominantly inhabited by tribal people like Paraja, Kotia ,Dora ,Rana, Gadba and Kondh. Most of the villages where Pragati works are located in hilly terrains and remain inaccessible during the rainy season. The main objective of the organisation is to improve the socio-economic standard of the rural people living in remote backward areas of Koraput district. The organisation is involved into no. of income generation activities pertaining to non timber forest produce like cashew, amla, spices etc. With the aim of building capacity for their business activities, IRFT has developed various systems in the areas of business like costing and pricing, and have provided various capacity building inputs in the area of marketing , pricing and costing , value addition, business planning and analysis.
SFT was instituted in 1980 as a philanthropic endeavour of the Shroff family. SFT is a non-governmental organization (NGO), with headquarters at Kalali, Vadodara. The project areas of the Trust are the drought-prone and flood-prone sectors in Gujarat state. Such lands are home to the indigenous tribals and rural poor whose lives are a daily struggle for existence. These lands are spread over Vadodara and Kutch districts. As of now, the Trust’s activities reach 47,500 families in 162 villages in these districts. The Trust provides supportive services in implementation of interventions in diverse areas such as Health, Agriculture, Livestock Management, Women Empowerment, Skill up gradation Income generation etc..IRFT support SFT in their handicraft unit.(income generation activity) for development of internal systems such as staff development, organisational strategy and structure, pricing and costing, market linkages and staff recruitment.
KASAM is dedicated for the socio-economic development of tribal farmers of Kandhamal district since 1998. Its’ motto is to generate employment with the aim of poverty alleviation by extension of organic spice area with scientific approach so as to minimize the exploitation by traders through inculcating feelings of self-confidence and self-reliance among the tribals. Providing healthy, pesticide and chemical residue free organic spices to the market is a hallmark of KASAM target. IRFT is playing a major role to aid domestic as well as international market linkages for KASAMs’ organic products.
SHARE MarketPlace is a fair trade, not-for-profit organization increasing economic opportunities for low-income women in slums of Mumbai and empowering them to bring about changes in their lives, their families and communities. MarketPlace works with 14 co-operatives consisting of 480 artisans in India who produce high-quality women’s apparel. Recently, IRFT conducted a training programme for Share Marketplace producer groups on production planning and developing accounting systems, towards achieving a better livelihood and overall sustainable growth for women. The workshop conducted by IRFT has helped them develop accounting systems that were almost non-existent; moreover they now have been able to understand how to manage profit and loss accounts for production unit. Production planning in turn has helped them to reduce costs and give timely delivery of orders.
An action group for children and women in India, JKSMS works to defeat individual poverty, empower poor communities, create development possibilities and sensitize the society to social problems. IRFT has worked with JKSMS on a livelihood initiative and craftsman workshops between 2003 and 2008.
Documentation workshop to manage all information required in the Sewa cooperative system to make it well organized and retrievable. IRFT counseled the senior members in the organization about the importance of documentation to make their working more professional.
In 2004 Syngenta Seeds Inc., a Swiss-based company joined the Fair Labor Association (FLA) as the first agricultural company to apply its monitoring methodology as a pilot multi-stakeholder programme. IRFT is in the process of building social awareness through training programs with Staff and other Stakeholders of Syngenta Seeds Inc. to help Syngenta field staff to effectively tackle compliance issues faced in the field. The training aims at developing acceptance of the need to take positive steps in code of conduct compliance, through effective communication tools that disseminate the core messages and simplify the code of compliance as beneficial to all stakeholders involved. This is a multi-linguial, multi-state project and presently completed in 3 states of Maharashtra, Gujarat & Karnataka
In the past, we have worked with numerous other organisations like:
• Academy of Development Sciences (ADS)
• Ahmedabad Study Action Group (Sarjan)
• Ahmedabad Women’s Action Group (AWAG)
• Ahmi Amchya Arogya Sathi (AAA)
• Centre for Science in Villages (CSV)
• Dharamitra
• Kalyani Mahila Grih Udyog (KMGU)
• Kutch Mahila Vikas Sanghathan(KMVS)
• Maharashtra Organic Farmers Association (MOFA).
• Navinchandra Mafatlal Sadguru Water and Development Foundation (NMSWDF)
Groups of small farmers and artisans often work within a larger organisation to access support services. These larger organisations are called Community Based Enterprises, and IRFT equips them with the knowledge and training to give the best possible support to their members. Now that’s working together.
CBEs often find it difficult to compete in the mainstream economy because of their lack of knowledge concerning markets, planning, design, strategy, process, etc. At IRFT, we work with these groups to improve their business performance, build their organisational capacity, and access profitable markets. We believe that by supporting the sustainability and growth of these businesses we help make the lives of small producer sustainable.
IRFT conducts marketing research that encompasses sales analyses, market information for domestic and export, and strategy & planning. We also provide market trainings, which involved networking, market exposure, and customer relations management.
IRFT works with producer organizations to analyze and re-structure their finances to better establish accounting and budgeting procedures, costing and pricing of products, and conduct ratio analyses.