Walmart Extends a Hand Up to Indian Farmers
By Amelia Ahl
Originally published by TriplePundit
The Walmart Foundation recently announced it will award two grants totaling $4.5 million to the NGOs Tanager and Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) in order to improve the livelihoods of Indian farmers. These grants are a part of a $25 million commitment the foundation made in September 2018 to support smallholder Indian farmers over the course of five years.
A commitment to the supply chain from Walmart
The announcement comes as Climate Week 2020 is well underway – and as Walmart announced its own long-term objective to reach zero emissions by 2040. This initiative also is launching at a time when more organizations are focusing on the global pandemic's impact on farmers worldwide.
Among the voices heard during this year’s Climate Week, some advocates are demanding an increase in climate philanthropy to support smallholder farmers, who currently feed 75 percent of the Global South. These same proponents of climate philanthropy point out that less than 2 percent of philanthropic contributions support environmental groups or causes, with a small fraction of that funding supporting women-led environmental action.
The Walmart Foundation grants will enable Tanager, an international agriculture nonprofit, and PRADAN, a Delhi-based community development organization, to focus their efforts on supporting farmer producer organizations (FPOs) to attract new members and scale their knowledge of sustainable farming and business practices, specifically for women farmers.
