FICCI Ladies Organisation (FLO) Hyderabad on Thursday said it has entered a partnership with East-West Seed Knowledge Transfer Foundation (EWS-KT) to train 100 women farmers in commercial vegetable farming. The training in cultivating, managing, and harvesting 50 hybrid varieties of vegetables and greens will take place at FLO Hyderabad’s newly launched ‘Centre of Excellence,’ in the city outskirts at Ravalkole village, Medchal district.

EWS-KT Foundation had launched programmes in India in 2016. Since then it has trained more than 80,000 smallholder farmers across five States (Odisha, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Karnataka), in advanced vegetable techniques. For the Telangana programme, the Foundation has signed a MoU with FLO Hyderabad.

“We are glad to collaborate with Dutch MNC East-West Seed for this initiative,” Priya Gazdar, Chairperson, FLO Hyderabad said further adding, “Resilient Roots, our agriculture initiative for the year 2024-25, aligns with FLO’s mission of ‘The Power to Empower.’ By empowering women in agriculture, we are not only creating avenues for income, but also addressing gender disparity by fostering inclusive growth and development.”

Over the next three crop seasons, the FLO Hyderabad Centre of Excellence will train 100 women farmers in the cultivation, management, and harvesting of nearly 50 different hybrid varieties of vegetables and greens, including Bitter gourd, Chilli, Cauliflower, Cabbage, Ridge gourd, Bottle gourd, Cucumber, Pumpkin, Red Sorrel, Okra, Onion and others.