Bharti Wal-Mart Ups Farmer Sourcing

 India - Bharti Wal-Mart, a joint venture company between Wal-Mart Stores and India's Bharti Group will be sourcing from 35,000 small and medium farmers by 2015, Wal-Mart's president said.

"We are already making a contribution to India's agricultural sector by working with a large number of farmers in Punjab," Mike Duke, president and CEO of Wal-Mart Stores reported.

The JV company currently works with 550 farmers in the country. Duke said Bharti Wal-Mart is intending to offer skills and technology for crop management to the farmers, who will see at least a 20% increase in their incomes. It will also train the farmers on how to utilise water and fertilisers optimally, Economic Times reported.

Bharti Wal-Mart is intending to add a third skills training centre in Bangalore within the next few months, while it was revealed that another skill centre will be set up in Mohali. It currently owns two training centres located in Amritsar and Delhi.

"We want to open more and more stores here and contribute in the training and we do stand ready to contribute much more than what we are doing right now if direct foreign investment is opened in retail," Duke added.