New Delhi, 3rd August 2022: Coca-Cola India, in line with its efforts towards creating an Atmanirbhar Bharat, has announced a decade of successful implementation of its Project Unnati. The project is part of Coca-Cola’s Fruit Circular Economy initiative, which is a key pillar of the Company’s ESG priorities – Sustainable Agriculture. Project Unnati aims to support the Indian agri-ecosystem by enhancing farming efficiency, strengthening forward linkages, and building food-processing capacity in the country. In the past 10 years, Project Unnati has helped empower and enable over 350,000 lakh fruit farmers across 12 states in In- dia. Focused on five fruit varieties Mango, Apple, Orange, Grapes, Litchi, and sugarcane, the program is aimed at propelling the horticulture supply chain and building agriculture production capacities across the country.
Furthermore, Coca-Cola’s ‘Meetha Sona Unnati’ program seeks to address challenges faced by small-scale sugarcane farmers, enhance their livelihoods, and promote climate-resilient sugarcane farming. The projects also facilitate farmers’ access to enabling infrastructure via high-yielding planting material and Good Agriculture Practices (GAPS) such as ultra-high-density plantation (UHDP) which involves drip irrigation, on-site training, and farm supplement support. These new technologies lead to a substantial increase in quality, productivity, and profit- ability per unit of land which further makes fruit cultivation lucrative.Rajesh Ayapilla – Director-CSR and Sustainability for India and Southwest Asia (INSWA) at The Coca-Cola Company said, “Farmers are the backbone of the Indian agrarian economy. Through project Unnati, our aim has been to elevate and enhance the livelihoods of these farmers by not only enabling them with advanced horticulture solutions but also empowering them to substantially increase their incomes. This is a step in line with the Government of India’s vision towards AtmaNirbhar Bharat, making the agrarian economy self-reliant.”Coca-Cola India took the first step towards creating a Fruit Circular Economy in India in 2011 with ‘Project Unnati Mango’ in Andhra Pradesh.
Projects launched under Project Unnati
Unnati Mango
o Unnati Mango was launched in 2011 to realize the potential of mango farming in Chittoor dis- trict across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. The program benefits farmers through Ultra-High-Density plantations, the use of drip irrigation to reduce water stress, increase crop yields, and overall community development.o Jain Irrigation and International Finance Corporation (IFC) are integral partners for implementation, farmers’ training, impact assessment, and hydrological assessment.
Unnati Orange
o Launched in 2018, Orange Unnati is an outcome of a tripartite partnership between CCIPL, the State Government of Maharashtra, and Jain Irrigation Systems Limited. The integrated agricultural development project aims to augment the quality, productivity, and profitability per unit of land use for citrus cultivation.
o Orange Unnati encourages the adoption of newer international varieties with almost 50% higher juice content than the traditional mandarin (Nagpur Santra) varieties. To create a holistic impact, the project also emphasizes knowledge dissemination, easy availability of saplings, and demonstrated impact through demo farms.
• Unnati Apple
o The project was launched in 2018, aimed at upliftment of livelihood of farmers by providing and educating them with improved and advanced agricultural techniques. This initiative was also started to support them in planting saplings and providing the requisite infrastructure which was subsidized to the tune of 80%.
o In order to ensure the well-being of farmer communities, improve yields and propagate judicious use of natural resources, Coca-Cola India partnered with Indo Dutch Horticulture Technologies Pvt. Ltd. (IDHT) as its Implementation Partner of Project Apple- Unnati in Uttarakhand.
