New Delhi: Walmart Foundation on Thursday announced two new grants to help smallholder farmers in India.

The fresh grants are part of a commitment made in September 2018 to invest $25 million (approximately Rs. 180 crores) over five years in improving farmer livelihoods in India. The new funding, which totals $4.5 million, will allow non profits Tanager and PRADAN to further scale their efforts to help farmers earn more from improved output and fair market access, Walmart said.

Both grantees will focus on increasing opportunities for women farmers via farmer producer organizations (FPOs), it added.

“With these two new grants, the Walmart Foundation has invested a total of $15 million with eight non-government organizations (NGOs) in India, supporting programs designed to impact more than 140,000 farmers, including nearly 80,000 women farmers, to date,” a company statement said.

 “The global COVID-19 pandemic has increased pressure on India’s farmers, especially women farmers shouldering extra responsibilities in the household while seeing their incomes diminish overnight,” Kathleen McLaughlin, president of Walmart Foundation and executive vice president and chief sustainability officer of Walmart Inc., said.

 “There is huge potential for innovative technology solutions to help farmers in India improve productivity and yield, access valuable market information and succeed as part of a more efficient and transparent supply chain. FPOs are key to the Foundation’s strategy for empowering farmers and bringing them into the digital era,” Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Flipkart Group chief executive officer and a member of the Walmart Foundation Board of Directors, said.

In the latest round of Walmart Foundation grants, international nonprofit organization Tanager will receive more than $2.6 million to extend its successful Farmer Market Readiness Program and help farmers in Andhra Pradesh further expand their knowledge, resources and reach. Phase Two of the program will focus on strengthening the sustainability of 13 FPOs, seven of which are new to the program, in order to help more than 15,000 farmers, including more than 5,600 women farmers, increase their productivity and profitability.