The 19 young people who gathered at Jammu in mid-July came from basmati rice growing families across three states of north India.  Some were still studying, from high school to postgraduate level, and a few were already in jobs. All of them were members of, or connected to, eight Fairtrade certified producer Organizations in Jammu and Kashmir (UT), Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

They came up with a common question that many young people in farming families ask: is there a future for me here, and what would it look like? Over two days they worked on answers, looking at rice not only as a crop their families grow but as a value chain with room for new enterprises, better practices and stronger local services.

The programme was designed under the Fairtrade NAPP Youth Strategy for India, which recognizes that the next generation of farmer members will lead their organizations and needs to be part of decisions today. It was coordinated by Sayali Rajendra Mahadik, Deputy Manager, and Sachin Verma, Assistant Manager for Youth and Gender Programmes at Fairtrade NAPP, and facilitated by Sachin Patwardhan, a trainer with long experience in sustainable agriculture and rural enterprise. The activity was co-funded by the European Union under the European Commission Funding Framework Partnership Agreement (EC FFPA).

Rice Seen Whole: From Seed to Sale, and Where the Value Sits

Most of the participants have grown up around paddy, but few had ever seen the crop drawn out as a full chain. In the value chain mapping session the group mapped rice from inputs and nursery through production, harvesting, processing, marketing and finally consumption, using examples from their own villages.

Laying it out this way showed them something useful: their families are active in only one or two steps of a long chain, and much of the value is added after the paddy leaves the village. Participants could then point to the steps closest to them where they could realistically move in, such as grading and sorting, warehousing, local milling and organised marketing. Several returned to these steps later when choosing business ideas, which is exactly what the exercise was meant to make possible.

Thirty-Three Business Ideas, Ranked by the Young People Who Would Run Them

After a session on entrepreneurship, participants were asked to list business ideas of their own, rank them by likely profitability and customer base, and present their three strongest. Between them the group produced 33 ideas, later grouped into on-farm activities, farm services, input supply, off-farm enterprises, rural non-farm activity and marketing of farm produce. They ranged from rice seedling nurseries, seed production, compost and biochar units and cold storage to solar pump installation, mushroom production, rice processing, agri-tourism and handicrafts from locally grown fibers.

The idea, named most often, of agricultural machinery rental service, was then taken apart together on a Business Model Canvas. Participants worked through its value proposition, key resources, partnerships and activities on the cost side, and customer segments, customer relations and revenue channels on the earning side. A closing session on business development took them from idea to entity: how to test a small business before scaling, register it, obtain licenses, choose a location, and approach banks, government subsidies and the wider start-up ecosystem for rural enterprises.

The gain for participants was a way of thinking they can reuse. Any idea they have in future can now be checked for who will pay, what it will cost and who they need alongside them, before money is committed.

Soil, Water and Stubble: Answers Participants Can Try in Their Own Villages

Sitting in five groups by region, participants listed what makes farming difficult where they live, then worked with the trainer on what could be done about each point. The list was specific: choked irrigation canals, flooding of fields, irregular monsoon, low soil fertility, stubble burning and its effect on soil health, pest pressure, labour scarcity, and timely availability of quality seed and machinery.

What they took home was a problem and solution matrix in their own handwriting. Against stubble burning they had zero tillage and converting paddy straw into biochar. Against declining fertility, organic manure and building soil organic carbon. Against irregular water, rainwater harvesting, borewell recharge, improved soil water holding capacity and movable solar pumps, alongside working with local irrigation committees and the irrigation department on canal desilting. Against pest pressure, integrated pest management. These are practices participants can begin discussing with farmer members in their own Organizations, and several connect directly to the environmental requirements in Fairtrade Standards, which the sessions on sustainability 

Technology That Fits a Small Farm, Not Only a Large One

The session on innovation and technology began by separating two things that are often confused in India, jugaad and genuine innovation. From there participants looked at how to choose technology that suits a specific need, with examples including agricultural drones, electric tractor bulls, solar pumping, digital advisory platforms and weather-based crop management tools.

The benefit was a habit of assessment rather than a list of gadgets. Participants practiced judging a technology against their own holding size, labour availability and cost before deciding it is worth adopting and discussed how small farms can reach equipment they cannot own outright through group based sharing and village level rental. That discussion fed straight into the machinery rental business model they built in the next session, and into the mechanization and digital advisory actions several of them wrote into their own plans.

A Morning at the Start-up Incubator, and a New Set of Doors

On the second day the group visited the Agribusiness Incubation Foundation at Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology (SKUAST), Jammu, where Yamini Raut of the incubation centre explained how the start-up incubator works: what kind of agricultural business ideas it takes on, the branding and promotion support available, the grants offered at different stages of a business, and the intensive training given to new incubatees, with examples of ventures the centre has already supported.

For young people who had spent a day generating ideas, this turned an abstract plan into a reachable next step, with a named institution in their own region to approach. A visit to the university's Seed Processing Unit added to that. Watching how quality seed is cleaned, graded and processed gave practical shape to seed production and nursery businesses, which several participants had listed among their own strongest ideas, and to the shortage of dependable quality seed they had identified in their villages.

Six Months of Their Own Planning

The training closed with the participants writing their own action plans, individually and as a group, and the six-month plan they agreed on is now the live piece of work. In the first two months they will compile a database of national and state government schemes for farmers, women and youth and share it with their producer Organizations and communities, an answer to the gap in scheme awareness they themselves named. Around International Youth Day in August 2026 they will organize plantation drives with their Organizations and community members. From the second to the sixth month, they will hold monthly village learning and awareness meetings with farmers on agribusiness, sustainable farming, climate smart practices and Fairtrade principles.

Alongside this they plan exposure visits to manure, compost and bio-input units within their producer Organization areas in months three and four, and a mapping of the agricultural technologies, machinery, irrigation systems and digital tools already in use around them in months three to five, with a short report on where wider adoption looks promising. In the sixth month they will present what worked, what did not and what they recommend at a review meeting with their producer Organizations, fellow youth members and Fairtrade NAPP. Regular virtual meetings between Fairtrade NAPP and the participants will track progress on these plans in the meantime.

Participants were also clear about where they would value continued work together: linkages with buyers, traders and input suppliers, further training and exposure visits, access to experts and mentors for the ideas they want to test, and information on grants, schemes and financing along with introductions to banks. Several also asked for greater youth representation in the governance of their own producer Organizations, and for gender sensitization and stronger intergenerational conversation between experienced farmers and younger members.

Irrigation, price realization, labour availability and market access are structural issues that no single training resolves, and progress on them will depend on the participants' own Organizations, government departments and partners working together over years. What these two days changed is who is now part of that conversation in eight producer Organizations across north India.