Unnati project aims to enhance livelihood opportunities for 5L + farmers by 2025
Saturday, 18 June 2022 | PNS | NAINITAL
Along with its partners, Coca-Cola India has been working with fruit farmers since 2011 under its flagship project – Unnati, which currently covers five fruits – mango, apple, orange, grapes and litchi and priority commodities like sugarcane. The company states that the project has been extended to 11 States, spread across nearly 1,00,000 acres, and more than 2000 demo farms while benefiting about 3, 50,000 farmers so far. In the next three years, the company plans to cumulatively benefit more than 5, 00,000 farmers through training and capacity building. The company claimed that through the Unnati projects, a productivity increase of up to five times has been achieved with certain farmers who adopted Good Agricultural Practices (GAP).
Coca-Cola INSWA, CSR and Sustainability senior manager Aditya Panda said, “A key pillar of our ESG priorities is sustainable agriculture. Through our Fruit Circular Economy initiative we aim to enhance farming efficiency and upscale the livelihoods of farmers. This is geared towards propelling the fruit supply chain and creating effective and sustainable socio-economic models, to support the Government of India’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. “
Unnati Apple project was initiated in Uttarakhand with the company partnering with Indo Dutch Horticulture Technologies Private Limited. Unnati Apple aims at a five-fold increase in apple production in India, primarily in Uttarakhand, by introducing good agricultural practices. After the successful completion of the first phase of Project Unnati – Apple, CCIPL now intends to extend the project by another three years and would work with the apple farmers of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh on Project Unnati – Apple phase II.
