TVS Ravi Kumar

Associate Partner

Ravi is an Associate Partner in MSC’s Agriculture domain.

He is an inclusive finance, value chain development, and financial services consultant with over 15 years of experience in agriculture finance, value chain development, digital financial services, microfinance, and government social protection payments. He has provided advisory services to Agtech start-ups, government development programs, banks, microfinance providers, and international development agencies in India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines. His areas of expertise include agri-value chain transformation, designing financial products, strategic business planning, and managing large quantitative research projects.

Posts by TVS Ravi Kumar

Five challenges that prevent greater adoption of derivatives trading by farmer producer companies (FPCs)

The blog highlights the challenges faced by the FPCs in using derivatives markets like futures and options and what steps need to be taken to overcome these challenges.

Decoding agriculture market linkages for FPOs: Lessons from the field

India’s farmers have had a long history of struggle. For decades, they have battled a multitude of agricultural challenges, such as fragmented landholding, numerous intermediaries, and low value addition. In response, the country has actively promoted farmer producer organizations (FPOs) as a solution. FPOs intend to address these serious issues through the aggregation of demand for high-quality inputs, credit, and technologies and the aggregation of outputs to improve smallholder farmers’ market access. Yet despite these efforts, major processors and output purchasing companies hesitate to engage directly with FPOs. This blog explains the options available for FPOs to trade with institutional buyers and the on-ground issues FPOs must overcome to establish better market linkages.

Crisis, resilience, and adaptation: farming and financial services in times of climate change

Climate change poses great challenges for small farmers. It disrupts their agricultural schedules and leads to lower crop yields and financial instability. The CIFAR Climate Resilient Agriculture (CRAg) working group recognizes these challenges and intends to address their needs through digital technology. It brings together different stakeholders to facilitate knowledge exchange and encourage the development of business models and start-ups that strengthen smallholder farmers’ climate resilience and adaptation.

The impact of climate change on farmers in Bihar and how farmer producer organizations can help them adapt

In Bihar’s Buxar district, farmers struggle to cope with the changing climatic conditions and adapt to them. Significant annual variation in rainfall and temperature erodes farmers’ adaptive capacities. Farmer producers organizations (FPOs) could play a central role to promote and facilitate farmers’ adaptation to climate change—but they need improved incentives and support.

Overcoming challenges in Farmer Producer Company (FPC) scaling and sustainability: Lessons from JEEViKA in Bihar

FPCs are powerful tools to allow smallholder farmers more control over the markets where they trade. This helps to transform agriculture productivity and increase small-scale producers’ incomes. However, cluster-based business organizations should recognize the inherent challenges that FPCs face and learn to address the pitfalls in managing FPCs to realize their potential. This blog outlines these challenges and share insights to address such pitfalls.

Can Farmer Producer Companies (FPCs) benefit from participating in agriculture derivatives trading?

India’s policymakers view the trading of commodity derivatives skeptically. As a result, they have enacted occasional bans and suspensions. Unfortunately, this apprehension is often misplaced and appears to be driven by concerns of speculative trading and market price manipulation. However, farmer producer companies have increasingly traded commodity derivatives to establish market linkage, achieve better price realization, and hedge commodity price fluctuations.

Innovations and coping strategies for food security at the time of COVID-19

COVID-19 is likely to have a widespread, deep, and prolonged impact on every sector and segment. In this blog, we discuss some innovations and practical solutions for governments and other stakeholders to consider to aid food security and to protect the livelihoods of smallholders

Deepening financial inclusion through cash transfers: The case of PKH in Indonesia

In 2017, the Government of Indonesia (GoI) began digitizing social benefit transfers to improve delivery efficiency and achieve sustainable financial inclusion. Program Keluarga Harapan (PKH), a conditional cash transfer (CCT) program, was the first major social assistance payment program (G2P) digitized by the government. It provides incentives for the following: Pregnant and lactating mothers, infants, […]