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HomePosts Tagged "Coca-Cola India"
Agrotech, Company News, Horticulture

In the past 10 years, Project Unnati has helped empower and enable over 350,000 lakh fruit farmers across 12 states in India.

Coca-Cola India has announced a decade of successful implementation of its Project Unnati. The project is part of Coca-Cola’s Fruit Circular Economy initiative, which is a key pillar of the Company’s ESG priorities – Sustainable Agriculture. Project Unnati aims to support the Indian agri-ecosystem by enhancing farming efficiency, strengthening forward linkages, and building food-processing capacity in the country. In the past 10 years, Project Unnati has helped empower and enable over 350,000 lakh fruit farmers across 12 states in India. Focused on five fruit varieties Mango, Apple, Orange, Grapes, Litchi, and sugarcane, the program is aimed at propelling the horticulture supply-chain and building agriculture production capacities across the country.

The adoption of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) through Unnati projects across Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh has accelerated fruit productivity by 5X via Ultra high-density fruit plantation technology. Furthermore, Coca-Cola’s ‘Meetha Sona Unnati’ program seeks to address challenges faced by small-scale sugarcane farmers, enhance their livelihoods, and promote climate-resilient sugarcane farming.

The projects also facilitate farmers’ access to enabling infrastructure via high-yielding planting material and Good Agriculture Practices (GAPS) such as ultra-high-density plantation (UHDP) which involves drip irrigation, on-site training, and farm supplement support. These new technologies lead to a substantial increase in quality, productivity, and profitability per unit of land which further makes fruit cultivation lucrative.

Rajesh Ayapilla – Director-CSR and Sustainability for India and Southwest Asia (INSWA) at The Coca-Cola Company said, “Farmers are the backbone of the Indian agrarian economy. Through project Unnati, our aim has been to elevate and enhance the livelihoods of these farmers by not only enabling them with advanced horticulture solutions, but also empowering them to substantially increase their incomes.”

Coca-Cola India took the first step towards creating a Fruit Circular Economy in India in 2011 with ‘Project Unnati Mango’ in Andhra Pradesh. The program then expanded to Unnati Orange in the year 2018 in Maharashtra, followed by Unnati Apple in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and eventually into Litchi and grapes over a decade. The initiative has been widely applauded by State Governments of India.

In the past 10 years, Project Unnati

Agrotech, Company News, Horticulture, India

Apple Unnati is part of Coca-Cola India’s Fruit Circular Economy Initiative, which extends to fruit farmers across 12 states & 6 fruit varieties in India.

Coca-Cola India along with Indo-Dutch Horticulture Technologies today hosted a felicitation ceremony in Uttarakhand to applaud and recognize local farmers from the state. Eminent dignitaries Ganesh Joshi, Agriculture Minister, Uttarakhand, along with Shailesh Bhagoli, Secretary, Agriculture, Uttarakhand, graced the ceremony with their presence.

20 farmers were recognized for the exemplary productivity benchmarks they have been able to achieve by adoption of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) in apple farming. It has led to a 5X increase in their productivity, empowering them to enhance their incomes and uplift their livelihoods. Introduced to them by Coca-Cola’s Project ‘Unnati-Apple’, in collaboration with Indo-Dutch Horticulture Technologies, the aim is to increase apple productivity in India, especially in the State of Uttarakhand, by bringing global best practices primarily focusing on ultra-high-density plantation (UHDP), leading to a substantial increase in quality, productivity, and profitability per unit of land, hence significantly increasing farmers income and acting as a catalyst to help India in achieving self-sufficiency in apple production.

Project Apple Unnati, launched in 2018 under the flagship sustainable agriculture program of Coca-Cola in India – Fruit Circular Economy, aimed to aid the Indian agri-ecosystem by enhancing farming efficiency, strengthening forward linkages, and building food-processing capacity in the country, addressing challenges of low farm productivity, poor technology adoption and fruit wastage in the horticulture sector. Coca-Cola recognizes farmers to be its true suppliers for key ingredients and values the partnership by focusing on their overall well-being. Along with partners, the company has been working with fruit farmers since 2011, under the flagship project – Unnati, which currently covers 6 fruits – Mango, Apple, Orange, Grapes and Litchi and priority commodities like sugarcane. The program has benefitted 3.5 Lakh farmers so far.

 Devyani Rajya Laxmi Rana, Vice President Public Affairs, Communications and Sustainability, Coca-Cola India & Southwest Asia, “Apple Unnati is part of Coca-Cola India’s Fruit Circular Economy Initiative, which extends to fruit farmers across 12 states & 6 fruit varieties in India.”

 Sudhir Chadha, Director, Indo-Dutch Horticulture Technologies, said, “Project Apple Unnati in partnership with Coca-Cola India has enabled thousands of farmers in the state of Uttarakhand. In fact, Coca-Cola India has been one of the first-ever organizations in Uttarakhand to initiate positive interventions in the space of sustainable agriculture.”

Apple Unnati is part of Coca-Cola India’s