WEBVTT

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Our fundamental belief is

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99.99 percent of human beings are honest,

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trustworthy and creditworthy.

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If they have not been able to
honour their commitment of repaying,

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it could be on account of situations or
circumstances which are beyond their control.

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And as a financier, as a lender, we feel that,

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it is our responsibilty to understand
the risks associated with the cashflows

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and how do we de-risk the person who is to pay us
from those risks.

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The average landholding of a smallholder farmer in India
is less than a hectare.

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By nature, it is fragmented landholding.

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So, the only way to aggregate the landholding,
is by aggregating people.

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The farmer collectives have been able to
add value to their members,

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if they had two things:

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One: access to finance,

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and two: having an entity that works with them
as a partner

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in what we refer to as the AMLA approach.

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Not just restrict yourself to finance,

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but go beyond finance as an internal player
in the value chain.

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Let me explain you about Samunnati's activities
through a success story.

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The customer's name is Valli.

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She couldn't get any credit support
from the national banks.

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I have two childeren.
We were struggling hard.

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Before, I was a daily wage worker.

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I didn't have the resources to do farming on our land,
we left it barren.

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Then, the FPO was formed,
to find a solution for our finance needs.

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Through that I got a loan from Samunnati.

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They gave the loan when we needed it.

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Using the crop loan,
we cultivated our land.

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And then, we don't stop with the credit support,

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since the AMLA approach includes the advisory services
and market linkages,

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through community based organisations.

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Now, we are doing proper farming.

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Before, we just copied whatever the nearby farmer
was doing. It was like that.

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Now, after joining the FPO,

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our soil gets tested to see which nutrients
the particular land has

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and they advice us on which crops are
most suitable for cultivation.

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They have their own processing unit,

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they process here,

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and they value add that commodity,

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so that they are able to give a
good profit margin to the farmer.

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Only because of this growth,
I was able to give my children good education.

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And, now I am giving work to ten people.

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Everyone, everyone in our society
should be able to grow... That is my wish.

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If we walk around the villages where Samunnati
has been operational for about 4 years,

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you would invariably see a lot of activity.

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Now, people have started getting into processing,

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people have started getting into local networks in terms of
selling their produce to the local geopraphies.

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People have started getting into local branding,

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to be able to produce the additional delta
on their processed food.

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So on and so forth.

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All this was latent, all this was inherent.

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It was very much inside, but...

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it needed a catalyst like Samunnati,

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it needed a catalyst like providing market linkages
and financial access,

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which is what we provided.