Maharashtra facilitates global access for women farmers from India Pavilion

Dubai: With the objective of boosting the socio-economic status and financial capabilities of the women of Maharashtra, Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVIM), the nodal agency of the Government of Maharashtra, today signed three MoUs at the India Pavilion in EXPO2020 Dubai. The MoUs, totaling, INR 65 crores (around USD 8.5 million) were signed with Dubai-based, LBI General Trading LLC, BB Global FZE, and San Ban Business Commercial Investment LLC as part of the ongoing Maharashtra Week and are expected to benefit over 50000 women farmers in the state.

As part of these MoUs, the partners will procure about 42,000 tonnes of agriculture commodities from women farmers of all districts in the state of Maharashtra, India. The partnership will provide a global market outreach with higher net profits returns for the produce i.e., onion, rice, and fresh fruits and vegetables. These MoUs will lay the ground for a global market outreach for women farmers.

Mrs. Shraddha Joshi Sharma, MD, MAVIM, on the occasion said, “At MAVIM we are working through Self-Help Group model and aim to attain 360-degree empowerment for the women of Maharashtra - economic, social and political.” She added, “The MoUs with three Dubai-based companies will provide our women farmers with a global platform and while the initial procurement of agri produce will be for 42,000 metric tonnes, we expect it to increase in times to come. We are very positive and hopeful that these MoU’s will benefit the women to a great extent.”

Mahila Arthik Vikas Mahamandal (MAVIM), a part of the Women and Child Development Department, Government of Maharashtra, works towards its mission to bring about gender justice and equality for women, investing in human capital and the capacity building of women, thus making them economically and socially empowered and enabling them to access sustainable livelihoods.

MAVIM has developed a robust network of 148 thousand SHGs and 1.7 million SHG members which received INR 40 billion worth of credit linkages​ and has a 99% repayment rate. Credit and support interventions resulted in 80% of women running their own business and helped 65% in doubling their income. MAVIM aims to interact with the global community at World Expo2020, Dubai to bring transformation in society through women empowerment.

Recently, MAVIM launched its eBusiness platform, a digital intervention for forward and backward linkages for products of women-led self-help groups, and thus empowering women. This is the very first government-initiated system in Maharashtra to capture real-time data for agricultural and allied commodities and other sectors such as food processing, craft, textile, tourism, services, etc.

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