Rural PRIME
The Rural segment of the PRIME Program aims at incubating 10,000 MICRO and NANO Enterprises (Imitation Based) over a 5 year horizon through business development, market and technology access, credit linkage as well as supporting 50,000 Livelihood Enterprises.
“PRIME HUBS” (PH) across all blocks work as the epicentre of this strategy which will provide the necessary support for these farm and off farm enterprises. These will comprise of Enterprise Facilitation Centres (EFCs), Rural Technology Park /Mini Industrial Estate and Incubators for enterprises. PHs will provide services ranging from training and capacity building, knowledge services, facilitating credit linkages, market linkages, business infrastructure etc to interested citizens.
Community Anchors (CAs) are an integral part of this architecture consisting of local Non Government/ Not for Profit Organizations/ Cooperatives/Societies/Charitable Trusts/ Village Organisations active in the block/ district with grass root level presence and good rapport with the community. CAs will act as a catalyst in the effective implementation and delivery of services in the GHs.
The PRIME Program has been implemented in 29 blocks of the state.
The primary activities for the CAs in the preliminary phase are consisting of:
Identification of product based micro-clusters in the blocks for three main products, using a value chain approach
Micro cluster comprises a group of 5 villages with average distance of not more than 30 minutes by foot. They must have a sizable production of the identified products. Each block identifies a total of 10 micro clusters comprising the top two to three main products of the block. Identification of these clusters is done on the basis of a rapid survey covering 50 percent of the villages in each block, organising a multi stakeholder platform comprising of (producers, aggregators, input suppliers, processors (if any). A value chain map is developed that graphically presents the relevant market actors and their relationships with one another. Identify constraints in the areas of market access, input supply, technology/product development, management and organization, finance, and infrastructure.
Formation of Collectives/ Producer Groups in micro clusters
Collective formation in the identified micro clusters will ensure that the PRIME Program benefits the majority of the livelihood entrepreneurs. Producer Group are formed from amongst farmers involved in similar levels of activities like Agriculture, Livestock or NTFP while the Service Provider group are formed from amongst the service delivery entrepreneurs such as aggregators, input suppliers, nursery raising, veterinary service etc. but are working for the specific value chain of the cluster. The primary objective of forming collectives under the PRIME Program is to enhance the production and productivity of the collectives members through a common intervention that benefits all the members. Community Anchors will initiate the process of concept seeding for group formation once the value chain analysis, gap identification, and possible interventions are identified for the micro clusters.
Identification of Nano Entrepreneurs
PRIME program defines Nano entrepreneurs are those who run regular, non-innovation or imitation based enterprises that use local resources and opportunity or solve a local problem providing employment for 2 - 20 people. Community Anchors will identify such existing nano entrepreneurs in their respective blocks and create a basic profile of their existing business, capital invested, production, profitability etc. 50 nano entrepreneurs per block are to be identified in the first phase post which intervention plans will be designed wherever feasible.
Identification of location for PRIME HUBS
PRIME HUB is the physical entity that serves as the epicentre of all enterprise activities under the PRIME Program. PRIME Hubs are established in all 29 blocks under the program. It will comprise of the Enterprise Facilitation Centre (EFC), Sectoral specific business incubators, Rural technology park/mini industrial estate.
