05 May 2026, Mumbai: Based out of Nashik, Sahyadri Farms is a farmer-owned, professionally managed, leading horticulture enterprise in India. Sahyadri Farmers Producer Co. Ltd., established in 2011, is a farmer-owned Farmer Producing Organisation (FPO). Vilas Shinde, who founded the FPO, along with 110 farmers, has built a network of 30,000+ farmers cultivating over 40,000+ acres across eight crops, including grapes and tomatoes. Its governance structure allows farmers to be shareholders—it combines cooperative ownership with corporate management practices, positioning it as a progressive FPC in the country.
Sahyadri Farms has proved how collectives can overcome these hurdles by pooling resources through shared ownership. The Sahyadri model does not replace individual farming; rather, it enhances it by embedding farmers within a larger, collaborative ecosystem to achieve their goals.
Within a few years of its establishment, it has become India’s Largest Integrated Fruits and vegetables value chain. It has evolved from a small exporter into a fully vertically integrated platform spanning production, aggregation, and processing.
Sahyadri Farms exports horticultural produce across continents. The company has diversified into crops such as pomegranates and bananas, forming an agricultural conglomerate. Sahyadri Farms accounts for a significant share of India’s table grape exports (around 17%) and supplies its produce to over 40 countries.
During FY 2024–25, Sahyadri handled over 382,000 metric tonnes of produce and recorded a 26% increase in revenue, indicating both scale efficiency and competitiveness.
Sahyadri Farms’ journey provides an important insight: scale in agriculture is not necessarily achieved through land consolidation, but through institutional aggregation. Sahyadri Farms, as a collaborative platform, enables farmers to access global markets and world-class infrastructure, and to comply with stringent quality standards—outcomes typically beyond the reach of individual smallholders. The significance of Sahyadri Farms lies in demonstrating how its sustainable actions contributed to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
This article examines how the Sahyadri Farms organisation is promoting several SDGs while remaining focused on farmers’ income and livelihoods; it presents lessons for replication by other farmers’ cooperatives, primarily in India and other developing countries.
Income enhancement and employment generation (SDG 1: No Poverty and SDG 8: Decent Work)
Sahyadri Farms has established an aggregation and export-oriented model that connects its member farmers directly to both domestic and global markets, significantly reducing the number of intermediaries between farmers and the final consumer. Sahyadri’s model has resulted in improved price realisation – reduced income volatility and increased income stability for farmers – along with enabling them to diversify their income-generating risk. Collectively, these factors address agrarian distress.
In conventional supply chains, intermediaries capture a larger share of the value created; in Sahyadri’s collective model, member farmers retain far more of the end-consumer price than in the prior market structure, thereby reducing poverty (SDG 1).
Sahyadri Farms has created over 7,000 jobs, demonstrating how scale can create additional rural employment opportunities. With over 30,000 farmers as members of the cooperative, Sahyadri Farms has also illustrated how collective action can serve as a multiplier for rural economic growth, especially in areas with very limited non-agricultural employment opportunities. Farmers producing for Sahyadri Farms also actively value-add to their agricultural products and engage with customers. As a result of their involvement with Sahyadri Farms, they are contributing to more inclusive and decent work (SDG 8).
Productivity, efficiency, and food systems (SDG 2: Zero Hunger & SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production)
Sahyadri Farms focuses on improving efficiency across the entire agricultural value chain, from production to processing to market delivery. It has improved the grading of produce, post-harvest storage, and logistics, thereby reducing post-harvest losses. The company has improved access to and stability of nutritious food by reducing post-harvest losses and establishing a consistent quality standard. This has contributed to Sustainable Development Goal 2 (zero hunger). In addition to ensuring standardisation and quality compliance, Sahyadri Farms also provides reliable supply chains by eliminating mismatches between what is produced and what consumers consume, both domestically and in export markets.
Sahyadri Farms promotes circular practices, such as waste reuse, organic farming, and reduction in chemical use, which align with Sustainable Development Goal 12 (responsible consumption and production). These practices have allowed Sahyadri Farms to increase input-use efficiency while decreasing environmental impact and contributing to long-term cost reductions and the affordability of agricultural produce. Sahyadri Farms is an example that shows how to align food security objectives (SDG 2) with sustainable production and consumption goals (SDG 12).
From safe food to healthy ecosystems (SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being; SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation; SDG 15: Life on Land)
The company’s practices comply with international food safety standards and SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) by protecting consumer health and enabling access to higher-value international export markets, but are also cost-prohibitive and technically challenging for smallholders to meet. Shared resource platforms (i.e., cooperatives) help smallholders mitigate these costs/constraints by providing access to shared infrastructure (e.g., drip irrigation and bio-inputs), technical assistance, and certification programs, thereby lowering the barrier to entry for smallholder producers.
In addition, improved resource-use practices, such as drip irrigation and bio-inputs, will enhance water-use efficiency, improve soil quality, reduce overuse of inputs, and address environmental contamination, while contributing to SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation).
Together, these practices support a broader transition toward sustainable intensification, where productivity is maintained while ecological stress is reduced. By strengthening soil health and biodiversity outcomes, the model aligns farm-level practices with landscape-level sustainability objectives under SDG 15 (Life on Land).
Human capital and inclusion (SDG 4: Quality Education & SDG 5: Gender Equality)
Strengthening human capital through capacity-building initiatives (structured training in Good Agricultural Practices, farmer training, etc.) has been supported, as it reduces information asymmetry for farmers and helps them produce in line with consumer preferences. Sahyadri has developed a model for continuous peer-supported learning in which knowledge and experience developed through practice are shared within the Sahyadri collective, a model very different from the traditional method of education via extension.
At Sahyadri Farms, women constitute 50% of shareholders and 32% of employees, a measurable progress toward gender inclusion. Women and smallholders are increasingly involved from farmers to decision-makers in pricing and market selection.
There may therefore be potential for farmers’ collectives to provide an institutional platform for advancing democracy in knowledge and decision-making through systems thinking. These models will enable the development of both technical capacity and farmers’ rights by establishing a common pathway.
Energy use and resource sustainability (SDG 7: Affordable & Clean Energy)
Sahyadri Farms has used renewables — such as solar and biogas — alongside investments in waste management and effluent treatment systems, with a clear strategic direction: reducing dependence on conventional energy while improving environmental performance. These investments are not only focused on sustainability but also on improving operations as efficiently as possible. For example, using Waste-to-Energy systems can reduce the disposal costs and generate usable energy. Here, the environmental cleanliness and cost-effectiveness are linked.
Sahyadri Farms’ commitment to achieving net-zero emissions by 2040 is long-term. Still, more importantly, it shows that when farmers work together, they can achieve sustainable transition goals that would otherwise be unattainable. By pooling their resources and purchasing power, farmer collectives can help make necessary green investments and lower entry barriers for sustainable practices.
Technology adoption and climate resilience (SDG-9: Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure & SDG 13: Climate Action):
Sahyadri Farms was proactive in adopting precision agriculture tools and digital technologies —including IoT-enabled monitoring and decision-support systems, drones, mobile apps, and climate advisory systems—enabling a shift from experience-based to data-driven decision-making.
Digital technologies support yield optimisation, efficient input use, and better harvest timing, all of which contribute to improved profitability. Equally important is their role in managing climate risk. With increasing variability in weather patterns, access to real-time advisories and climate-resilient practices enhances farmers’ adaptive capacity.
Adopting such tools through collective efforts would reduce the burden on small individual farmers while facilitating shared learning. However, variability in access and adoption across members remains a constraint that can be overcome through collectives. Technology diffusion in agriculture is more effective when mediated through institutions rather than left to individual adoption. Farmer collectives can act as propellers for scaling innovation, ensuring that even smaller farmers benefit from advancements that would otherwise remain inaccessible.
Market access and equity (SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities & SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities)
Through collective aggregation, farmer collectives can use collective production and standardised product quality to achieve economies of scale, negotiate with large buyers, and access higher-value domestic and international markets. Through collectives, farmers strengthen their bargaining power for better prices. The FPO Model seeks to address one of the most persistent structural issues in agriculture – unequal bargaining power.
Rural-Urban connections will be improved through investments in infrastructure and logistics, increasing access from farms to urban markets to sell their produce, and ensuring farmers have regular access to income. The Farmer Producer Organisation (FPO) model demonstrates how institutional organisation can affect farmers’ market access. As the involved farmers would use the FPO as a form of collective marketing, a link will be established between small-scale farms and large urban markets. The FPO model thereby provides a means to increase inclusive growth.
Governance and partnerships (SDG 16: Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions & SDG 17: Partnerships for the Goals):
Sahyadri Farms’ governance structure is based on the principles of democratic participation (one member, one vote) and professional management. This dual structure allows for both inclusivity and efficiency. It helps hold farmers accountable while ensuring that business decisions are based on operational requirements in the market and in the business. The partnerships with customers and industry provide Sahyadri Farms with access to knowledge, innovation, and technology to improve agricultural practices.
As a result of Sahyadri Farms’ work with partners within and outside India, thousands of farmers have access to technologies and markets that would otherwise be unavailable to them. Sahyadri Farms also provides farmers with a means to comply with global standards, thereby improving their competitiveness in the global farm economy. An important lesson for institutions is that the performance of farmer collectives will be influenced by both their internal governance and their external linkages. If partnerships are well-structured, the opportunities for farmers are expanded, adding resilience to the overall agricultural system.
Synthesis
Collectives such as Sahyadri Farms are working towards achieving the SDGs by aligning sustainability with their core business across all elements of production, processing, the market, and resource management, rather than through stand-alone, externally sponsored strategies or plans.
The Sahyadri Farms business model demonstrates how, through the combined principles of collective action, technology adoption, and market integration, local innovation through institutions can produce multiple outcomes, such as higher incomes, better environmental conditions, and stronger rural institutions. Also noted is that all outcomes will support one another, with improvements in one area (e.g., market access) leading to improvements in others (e.g., sustainability and technology).
Before the model can be successfully replicated in other countries, it is critical to identify the enabling conditions that will support success. These include effective leadership, government-backed support and funding, good governance, and ongoing market connection. Therefore, the message for practitioners and policymakers is that an institutional model will be required to develop future support for farmer groups. If the design is correct, farmer collectives become an institutional framework that can be scaled and used to support many different individual strategies simultaneously, as well as reduce transaction costs through greater negotiating power and increased access to new technologies and markets. Countries like India will require thousands of cooperatives like Sahyadri Farms to make farmers prosperous and progressive with farming.
Concluding Insight
Sahyadri Farms showcases a continual transformation from subsistence farming to enterprise farming. It demonstrates that farmers do not necessarily have to abandon small farms to transform into enterprise farming; rather, they can reorganise through collective institutions. In a country like India, with millions of small and marginalised farmers, the FPO model of Sahyadri Farms can serve as a lesson.
Such agricultural cooperatives provide farmers with collectivism and a strategic pathway to produce more for global markets whilst maintaining ownership and control of their products.
Increasing competition, climate change, and resource shortages are putting ever greater pressure on small-scale farmers. The FPO model of Sahyadri Farms empowers farmers—easing their burdens, strengthening their resilience, and turning farming into a pathway to shared success.
Authors of the article:
Ramesh Kotnana, Senior Manager, Centre for Business Innovation, Indian School of Business, Hyderabad; email: ramesh_kotnana@isb.edu; Kumara Charyulu Deevi, Senior Scientist – Agricultural Economics, ICRISAT, Patancheru, email: kumaracharyulu.deevi@icrisat.org; A Amarender Reddy, Joint Director, ICAR-National Institute of Biotic Stress Management (ICAR-NIBSM), Raipur, email: amarender.reddy@icar.org.in
Global Agriculture is an independent international media platform covering agri-business, policy, technology, and sustainability. For editorial collaborations, thought leadership, and strategic communications, write to pr@global-agriculture.com
