Linking Producers and Processors - Sorghum for Poultry Feed: A Case Study from India

Rainy-season sorghum in India is mainly cultivated by resource poor farmers to meet households requirements of food and fodder and a small surplus for the market. During the last two decades the food demand for rainy-season sorghum grain has declined in India, due to faster growth in the production of fine cereals (primarily wheat and rice) and public policies (procurement, and distribution) that make the subsidized grains accessible to the low-income consumers. At the same time, new alternative markets for sorghum grain uses are emerging, for example, poultry feed, livestock feed, alcohol manufacturing etc. However, owing to scattered and small-scale production farmers are unable to meet the requirements of the industry that need grain in bulk quantities. This paper describes an innovative institutional arrangement for formation of sustainable economic inter-linkages between rainy-season sorghum producers and poultry feed manufacturers through a coalition of partners that includes researchers, farmers, farmers associations, poultry feed manufacturers, and poultry producers. The common or shared goal of this arrangement is to augment the income of small-scale sorghum growers by establishing market linkages with poultry feed manufacturers. Under this arrangement farmers were supplied with seed of improved sorghum cultivars and trained in bulking and storage of grain, poultry nutritionists conducted poultry feed trials replacing maize with sorghum in varying proportions, feed manufacturers developed poultry feed rations with sorghum. Finally, the project linked sorghum growing ‘Farmer Groups’ with feed manufacturers thus assuring a market for the sorghum growers and bulk supplies to the industry.