DBT in Fertilizer (DBT-F) is a modified subsidy payment system that remits subsidies to fertilizer companies only after retailers sell fertilizer to farmers through Aadhaar-based authentication. The NITI Aayog and the Department of Fertilizers (DoF) in India engaged MSC to study the program and provide actionable solutions to improve its implementation. MSC provided technical support to conceptualize and implement a set of DBT pre-pilots in two districts of Andhra Pradesh followed by a pilot in 14 districts. MSC also provided implementation and design support at each stage through concurrent evaluations.
MSC’s work comprised a mixed-methods study design, which included qualitative and quantitative research with 12,000 retailers and farmers. MSC recommended measures, such as developing a device-agnostic application, deploying a centralized call center, and altering the POS application to generate transaction receipts in local languages. MSC submitted an approach note to the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers to transition directly from in-kind subsidy to cash transfer subsidy to farmers’ accounts.
MSC’s intervention led to the nationwide implementation of DBT-F in a record time of two years. This led to efficiency, administrative gains, and financial savings.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned the project.
The Government of India intended to create an AgriStack to provide IT-driven services to farmers and double their income. MSC initiated this project to help the government realize its goal.
MSC helped the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in India digitize farmers’ land records. We analyzed each state’s unique data management processes and systems to provide tailored support. This was done in three phases:
- Baseline and model design: Categorized states into four clusters based on data system maturity and created SOPs for each cluster;
- Design: Drafted models and taxonomies for the databases and prepared a roadmap for their creation;
- Implementation and rollout: Sensitized the states, tested SOPs on a pilot basis, and helped create databases and associated models.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned and supported this project.
The Government of India enacted the National Food Security Act (NFSA) in 2013 to ensure people could access adequate quantities of quality food at affordable prices. Since 2014, MSC has collaborated with the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD) on research projects to examine the Public Distribution System’s (PDS) nutritional effectiveness, the effect of cash transfers in union areas, the PDS supply chain, and the expansion of the Integrated Management of Public Distribution System (IMPDS)—One Nation One Ration Card.
MSC formulated a technical support unit (TSU) at DFPD in 2020 to continue providing technical support to the department’s initiatives. MSC has been working with the DFPD to implement, scale up, and stabilize the national-level portability of fair price shops. MSC also created a robust system to analyze data and a near real-time monitoring system to help strengthen the system.
MSC continues to create evidence to scale up initiatives, use PDS’s potential to improve nutritional outcomes and implement ongoing direct benefit transfer (cash) pilots in union territories alongside choice-based pilots in states.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned the project.
MSC has been conducting women’s business diaries-based action research in Bangladesh to reduce financial barriers to access for women entrepreneurs. MSC will track all financial and nonfinancial transactions of about 500 women entrepreneurs for this project. This research is set against the backdrop of the minimal evidence available on how women-owned businesses are run and the unclear impact of social norms that restrict women’s agency. Research on microenterprises has only recently revealed hypotheses, such as men making business decisions for women-owned micro and small enterprises (WMSEs) and women’s preference for different types of businesses than men.
Through this research, MSC will take a comprehensive view of the lives of female business owners. This includes their financial, business management, digital, and personal lives. MSC will then collaborate with financial institutions to use insights from the action research to develop gender-centric financial products and help WMSEs in Bangladesh.
Under the JSPVAT initiative, MSC engaged with 27 farmer producer companies (FPCs) involved in agriculture and livestock in India’s Bihar state. The project’s primary objective was to elevate the quality of services available to smallholder farmers and facilitate their economic transformation. JSPVAT started in 2020 to support JEEViKA—the Bihar state government’s rural livelihoods project.
Under JSPVAT, we sought to bolster the financial viability and self-sustainability of these FPCs, which would empower them to cater to marginal female farmers’ needs statewide. MSC offered strategic and operational consulting services to support JEEViKA, a State Rural Livelihoods Mission in the state. We provided technical expertise and enhanced operational efficiencies to increase the profitability of agriculture for Bihar’s farmers.
MSC played a crucial role to establish an overarching brand called “Green Delights” and associated stores for JEEViKA FPCs. This initiative empowered rural women to tap into premium markets through effective branding, improved packaging, and FPC-owned modern retail outlets.
So far, MSC has successfully facilitated the linkages of more than 36,000 metric tons of various commodities and 8,000 metric tons of agricultural inputs with 22 different agri-input market players. Our efforts benefited Bihar’s smallholder farmers.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation commissioned the project.
The CRAg working group seeks to address three broad inter-related aspects of agri-food systems:
- Integration and coordination in value chains: This is a central problem in developing economies, characterized by numerous smallholder farmers and businesses with poor communication, weak physical infrastructure, and ineffective formal institutions.
- Diffusion of innovation across value chain participants: Even where innovations are ostensibly well-engineered for the context, frameworks of understanding, values, and risk perceptions play a significant role in shaping the diffusion of innovation and hence the adoption of productivity and resilience-enhancing technologies.
- Financing innovation end-to-end: The transformation of agri-food systems generally requires upfront investment and dealing with the problem of the inherent risks posed by change. Smallholders and small-scale firms in agri-food systems are frequently especially constrained in their ability to raise the finance to enable a shift from business-as-usual.