Giridhan FPC is located in the Giridih district of Jharkhand. The FPC operates in 8 blocks of 2 districts – Dhanbad & Giridih. Out of these 8 blocks, the FPC has an active and extensive portfolio in 7 different blocks of Dhanbad and Giridih. In Dhanbad, it covers Nirsa, Tundi and Purvi Tundi blocks whereas in Giridih it covers Deori, Gandey, Pirtand and Tisri blocks. The FPC is majorly involved in high-value agriculture crops like Chilli, Tomato etc. and actively engaged in fishery, livestock, and Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP). The Board of Directors and promoters of the FPC represent all the blocks.
Giridhan FPC is dealing with high-value crops which involve high-value transactions. The BoDs of the FPC had to make decisions for high-value transactions. Hence, it was evident for the FPC to have a mutual agreement between the BoDs for approval of any business-related transactions. The FPC faced issues in terms of logistics concerning the meetings of the BoDs. Having an office in Giridih, it was logistically difficult for BoDs from Dhanbad to attend the meeting every fortnight. For example, a board member has to travel 30-40 Kms on an average to reach the office. With limited and time-restricted availability of public transport, it was difficult and expensive for board members to travel for meetings every 15 days.
The distant location of BODs, as well as signatories, created geographical restrictions like mobility for central meetings, approval of mutually agreed transactions and more. This made the BoDs to conduct the meetings alternatively in both districts. However, the meetings were not effective as they observed huge delays in the approval of transactions. Moreover, the FPC also faced issues with the cost incurred for approval of immediate/emergency transactions for the BoDs. A digital mechanism for transactions became the need of the hour. However, with little technical and technological knowledge, the FPC couldn’t implement any feasible solution around the same.
Ananya’s team in the JOHAR project realized that the problem required a long-term, transparent and sustainable solution. The team decided to develop a 360 degree stakeholder problem identification approach and conduct a cause-effect analysis for all the problems associated with the FPC. Furthermore, The team designed a DNA (Devising Neutral Activity) method to identify one solution that can neutralize multiple problems.
Discover the DNA method of Ananya developed and implemented to solve the challenge at Giridhan FPC here: Case Study
ABOUT JOHAR PROJECT
JOHAR (Jharkhand Opportunities for Harnessing Rural Growth) is a project implemented in 68 blocks across 17 districts of Jharkhand, India. The development objective of the project is to enhance and diversify household income in select farm and non‐farm sectors for targeted beneficiaries in rural areas. Ananya is engaged as one of the Technical Support Agencies for enhancing creditworthiness of the Producer Groups (PGs) and Producer Companies (PCs) by way of imparting trainings, streamlining book keeping, helping adherence to regulatory compliance & supporting financial reporting & analysis.
The case study is authored by Avi Jain, Nagendra Rajawat and Neeraj Kumar.