November 2017

priority, setting an important example in a country
where more than an estimated 18 million people
are paid unfairly, and offering other benefits to help
but communities onto a more sustainable footing.
For instance, Ambootia gives its staff housing,
food, fuel, footwear, protective clothing, winter
blankets and basic, free medical treatment. Free
milk is distributed through the infant nutrition
programme, and social security includes provident
and pension funds and support for dependants.
And to help the next generation, the co-op is
providing free primary education so that children
can go to school instead of working alongside their
parents as child labourers.
Most of the tea picking on the Ambootia estates
is undertaken by women and the company says
it places a strong emphasis on enhancing female
economic empowerment.
Oikocredit has highlighted the example of one of
the women working for Ambootia, Priti Thapa, who
cares for a household of six alongside her husband,
a driver. Priti picks tea for eight hours each day –
minus lunch and tea breaks – while her daughter
attends the school on the estate. Priti also takes
advantage of an income augmentation programme,
which provides her with the tools and resources to
make additional income from growing vegetables
and breeding cows, pigs and chickens.
Oikocredit said it chose to become an equity
investor in Ambootia because of its strong blend of
a solid business plan and commitment to employee
welfare. It said the co-op model was a valuable
means to give farmers a stronger position in the
supply chain, through collective bargaining.
Thos Gieskes, managing director of Oikocredit,
said: “There is a whole value chain between
the farmgate and the supermarket. One of the
fundamental solutions to ensure that farmers get a
better reward for their product is to connect them
better into that value chain, so they can capture
more of the value that is created in that value chain.
“Because they tend to be small, they just get
marginalised by the next step above them in the
chain. There are people in those value chains who
make a lot of money.”
“That’s why co-operatives are so important in
the agriculture space – they allow farmers to unite
and get a better bargaining position in the chain.
What Oikocredit wants to do in general, it is to work
with people at the bottom of the pyramid – to give
them the opportunity to rise out of poverty in a
sustainable way.”
Bharat Khemka, vice-president and deputy
chief financial officer of Ambootia, said: “We have
used [Oikocredit’s] funds to acquire struggling,
abandoned and derelict estates. Thousands of
people were in a precarious situation. Their basic
wages weren’t being paid, their homes were
dilapidated and they were unable to lead normal
lives. With Oikocredit’s help, we’ve bought three
estates and are working on turning them into
profitable businesses.’’
In September 2015, the United Nations created a
universal set of goals aimed at addressing critical
global challenges by 2030. These goals, known
as the sustainable development goals (SDGs),
are focused on tackling poverty, inequality and
injustice, hunger, climate change and many other
issues facing the world today. Achieving the SDGs
is estimated to cost around $1.4tn (£920bn) each
year for the next 13 years, and governments alone
will not be able to foot the bill.
“The impact of Oikocredit on many of the 65,000
people who live on our company’s tea estates is
tremendous,” said Ambootia chair and managing
director Sanjay Bansal. “As well as social benefits,
there are ecological improvements because we
follow a sustainable model of farming.”
p Tea pickers from
Oikocredit social
enterprise partner,
Ambootia (Image:
Opmeer Reports)
q Priti Thapa,
Ambootia tea employee,
on her vegetable plot
(Image: Opmeer Reports)
NOVEMBER 2017 | 49