Custard apple is abundantly grown in the forests of tribal areas of south Rajasthan (Pali, Udaipur, and Rajsamand) and Madhya Pradesh (Chhindwara, Seoni, and Shahdol). National Horticulture Board and Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority data shows 5,000 tonnes of custard apple in Rajasthan and 37,000 tonnes in Madhya Pradesh. In the absence of any technology around its preservation, processing and value-addition, tribal people were fetching very low prices (Rs. 2-3/Kg). With processing technology and better marketing opportunities, two producer companies (owned wholly by farmers) led by SRIJAN have been able to increase base prices of custard apple to Rs. 10/Kg by converting it into frozen pulp/powder to be used in the ice-cream and confectionary industry. The whole value-chain follows four steps- procurement, processing, packaging, and marketing. Processing technology involves manual scooping, mechanical deseeding through pulpers, blast-freezing using air-cooling systems.

SRIJAN has gained experience with these two pilots and is currently scaling up the operations with State Rural Livelihood Missions (Maharashtra State Rural Livelihood Mission and Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty.)

SRIJAN has been working on the value-addition of various NTFPs/MFPs in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh for the past 5 years. Village level collection centers are formed, where fair-pricing, grading of produce and payment to the producers are carried out. Produce is then taken to a central processing unit for value-addition (hardening, drying, powdering or direct product making). The product is then sold to institutional buyers through a marketing company. With focus, primarily, Custard apple, Jackfruit, and Jamun, SRIJAN has initiated a decentralized process of value-addition, where individual VLCCs carry out all aforementioned operations along with a primary level processing.

• Self-reliance of women leaders in terms of collection and processing of Custard Apple.
• Job Creation at the village level, as well as better price realization of the produce.
• Self-regulation and ownership of Business, utilizing local wisdom in the opening of collection centres; ease of replication and community transmission of processing knowledge.