She is young and ambitious and she finds cooperative as the only means to transform the lives of people in areas around Ahmadnagar in Maharashtra. Sandhya Tiwari is the CEO of Mahanidhi- a multi state cooperative credit society which empowers farmers by supplying them practically everything – from agri-inputs to fund.
Sandhya is one of the finds of IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi who is currently touring India and scouting talent in the process. Introducing her to this correspondent Awasthi said “meet her she is the real model of woman empowerment in the country”.
Sandhya was invited to take part in IFFCO’s AGM –the scope of which was broadened to include all progressive farmers and cooperators from across the country. Recounting the phone call of IFFCO GM Yogendra Kumar inviting her to the AGM, she said ” I have come to seek the blessings of Dr Awasthi. He is like a Godfather to us budding cooperators.”
Active in Maharashtra and parts of Gujarat Mahanidhi was set up in 2012 and never looked back. It enters into verbal contract with the farmers and supply them seeds, pesticides, fertilizer or anything they need for the purpose of farming, claimed CEO Sandhay Tiwari.
As of now it has entered into contract of 2000 hectares involving close to 600 farmers which means roughly 100 families, said Sandhaya. ”Since we have just begun we are covering just a few villages now but we plan to expand soon” she added.
They also finance farmers to set up dairy units and buy back their milk in order to get them good profit. ”We aim to drive away the middleman through the power of cooperative,” she just exuded confidence.
Mahanidhi also buys back crop from farmers. Last year it bought wheat and soya bean from the farmers. In this harvesting season Mahanidhi aims to buy about 3000 tonnes. They market the product as “Sanjh Savera” which is gaining ground slowly, stated Sandhya.
We also sell IFFCO’s fertilizer because of its strong brand value. We usually sell 8000 to 9000 tonnes of it but the volume is sure to increase with time, she underlined.
