Rural management careers: IRMA, NRLM, NGOs, CSR and rural banking

In short

Rural management is the application of management discipline — marketing, finance, operations, HR, strategy — to rural producers, cooperatives, government missions, banks and voluntary organisations. The career universe has five doors: professional education (IRMA, NIRDPR, XISS, TISS and similar), government rural missions (DAY-NRLM and the State Rural Livelihoods Missions), the voluntary/NGO sector, corporate CSR and development consulting, and rural/agri banking (RRBs, NABARD, cooperative banks, NBFC-MFIs). It matters because roughly two-thirds of India lives in rural areas and the money routed through MoRD schemes, priority sector lending and mandatory CSR runs into lakhs of crores a year, all of which needs people who can manage it. Examined in BA/BRM and MA Rural Development papers on "institutions and careers in rural development", in IRMA/XISS/NIRDPR entrance interviews, and in recruitment tests for IBPS RRB, NABARD Grade A/B, SRLM Young Professional and CSR-foundation roles.

Explained

Professional education: IRMA and the rural-management institutes

• IRMA (Institute of Rural Management Anand), set up 1979 on the initiative of Dr Verghese Kurien with NDDB, the Government of India and the Government of Gujarat, is the reference institution for the discipline; its flagship is a two-year residential PGDM (Rural Management), plus a Fellow Programme (FPM) and executive programmes.
• IRMA admission: a national management test score (CAT/XAT/CMAT/GMAT are accepted — the accepted list and cut-offs change each cycle, so read the current prospectus) plus IRMASAT, IRMA's own Social Awareness Test on issues of social concern, followed by a personal interview. IRMASAT is what distinguishes the process: it tests awareness of rural India, not quantitative aptitude.
• IRMA's signature pedagogy — three fieldwork segments: the Village Fieldwork Segment (VFS), several weeks living in a village; the Organisational Fieldwork Segment (OFS) in a cooperative/NGO/mission; and the Management Traineeship Segment (MTS), a long summer assignment. Immersion plus management theory is the core of the model.
• Other institutions: NIRDPR, Hyderabad (Ministry of Rural Development's national institute) runs the one-year PGDRDM and is also the main training and research body for rural development functionaries; XISS Ranchi (PGDM–Rural Management); KIIT School of Rural Management, Bhubaneswar; TISS (Mumbai and Tuljapur campuses — social sciences, development studies, rural development); IIFM Bhopal (forestry and natural resource management); MANAGE Hyderabad (agri-business management); and state agricultural universities' MBA (Agri-Business) programmes.
• Academic route: UGC-NET in Social Work / Rural Development / Sociology for lectureship and research; PhD at IRMA, TISS, NIRDPR, IRMA's FPM (the M.Phil degree was discontinued by the UGC), Institute of Development Studies–type centres.

Government rural missions: DAY-NRLM and the MoRD architecture

• DAY-NRLM (Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National Rural Livelihoods Mission), launched 2011 restructuring the earlier SGSY, is a centrally sponsored mission implemented through autonomous State Rural Livelihood Missions (SRLMs) — Kudumbashree (Kerala), JEEViKA (Bihar), SERP (Andhra Pradesh), Mission Shakti (Odisha), UMED (Maharashtra) and others.
• Three-tier community institutional architecture: SHG (10–20 women, savings-led) → Village Organisation (VO) federating SHGs of a village → Cluster Level Federation (CLF) federating VOs across a cluster of villages. The federations are legal, audited, community-owned bodies that on-lend and deliver services.
• Financial instruments: a Revolving Fund (RF) as seed corpus, a Community Investment Fund (CIF) routed through federations for livelihood plans, Vulnerability Reduction Fund, bank linkage under the SHG–Bank Linkage Programme, and interest subvention so prompt-repaying SHGs borrow cheaply.
• Community cadres — the sector's largest employer of rural youth and women: Bank Sakhi, BC Sakhi (business correspondent), Krishi Sakhi, Pashu Sakhi, Book-keeper/Cashier, Community Resource Person (CRP), Internal Community Resource Person, Active Women.
• Lakhpati Didi, the mission's flagship target, treats a woman as a "Lakhpati Didi" when her household's annual income reaches ₹1 lakh or more, built from diversified livelihoods (farm, livestock, non-farm enterprise, wage). The national ambition announced is 3 crore Lakhpati Didis; reported achievement is updated continuously, so quote the latest MoRD figure rather than a remembered one.
• Professional cadre jobs in an SRLM: State/District Programme Manager (thematic — livelihoods, financial inclusion, social inclusion, M&E, HR, communications), Block Mission Manager, Cluster Coordinator, and Young Professional positions recruited by SRLMs and by NRETP (the World Bank-supported National Rural Economic Transformation Project). These are contractual, project-period posts, usually filled from IRMA/TISS/XISS/NIRDPR and social-work streams.
• Other MoRD programmes a rural manager works on: the VB-G RAM G Act, which replaced MGNREGA from 1 July 2026 and guarantees 125 days of wage employment per rural household in a financial year; PMAY-Gramin (rural housing); PMGSY (rural roads); NSAP (old-age, widow and disability pensions); DDU-GKY and RSETIs (placement-linked skilling and self-employment training); Mission Antyodaya (gram panchayat-level survey and planning); SAGY. Scheme designs and allocations change at each budget — check the current MoRD guidelines before quoting unit costs.
• Fellowships as an entry route: Prime Minister's Rural Development Fellows (PMRDF), Chief Minister's/State fellowships, Gandhi Fellowship, SBI Youth for India, India Fellow, Azim Premji Foundation and NITI Aayog-linked fellowships.

The voluntary sector: NGO forms, compliance and roles

• Legal forms: a society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (or the state Act); a public charitable trust under the Indian Trusts Act, 1882 or state public trust law; a Section 8 company under the Companies Act, 2013 (not-for-profit, no dividend, licence from the Registrar).
• Tax status: registration for charitable exemption and for donor deduction (the regime formerly numbered 12A/12AB and 80G under the Income-tax Act, 1961) now runs under the Income-tax Act, 2025, in force from 1 April 2026, which renumbered every section and form — name the provision, not an old number, unless you are certain of the current one. Registrations are time-limited and must be renewed; Form 10BD/10BE-type statements of donations received are part of the compliance load.
• FCRA: foreign contributions require registration or prior permission under the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 as amended in 2020 — registration normally needs three years' existence and a minimum spend on the organisation's aims, the funds must come into a designated FCRA account at SBI New Delhi Main Branch, administrative expenses are capped at 20% of the foreign contribution, transfer (sub-granting) to another FCRA entity is prohibited, Aadhaar of office bearers is required, and annual returns plus website disclosures must be filed. FCRA compliance is itself a job.
• To receive CSR money an implementing agency must be registered on form CSR-1 with the MCA — the single most common reason a competent NGO loses a CSR grant.
• Typical NGO roles: Programme Manager/Officer, Project Coordinator, Field Supervisor/Community Mobiliser, Monitoring Evaluation & Learning (MEL) specialist, Grants and Donor Reporting, Fundraising/Partnerships, Finance & Compliance, Communications, Policy/Research Associate. Large employers include PRADAN, BAIF, Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (India), SEWA, Digital Green, Transform Rural India, Samaj Pragati Sahayog, Jan Sahas, Professional Assistance for Development Action-type grassroots bodies, and the Indian offices of World Bank, UNDP, UNICEF, FAO, IFAD and the Gates Foundation.
• Employment conditions: staff are hired on project contracts tied to grant cycles; the four Labour Codes in force from 21 November 2025 (Wages, Industrial Relations, Social Security, OSH&WC) govern wages, gratuity, social security registration and contract-staff conditions for NGOs as for any employer.

Corporate CSR: the statutory framework and the jobs it creates

• Trigger (Companies Act, 2013, s.135): CSR applies to a company that in the immediately preceding financial year has net worth ≥ ₹500 crore, or turnover ≥ ₹1,000 crore, or net profit ≥ ₹5 crore. Any one threshold is enough.
• Obligation: spend at least 2% of the average net profit of the three immediately preceding financial years, net profit computed under s.198. A company with less than three years' existence uses the years available.
• Governance: a CSR Committee (three or more directors, one independent, where applicable; companies with obligation up to ₹50 lakh may discharge functions through the Board), a Board-approved CSR Policy, an annual action plan, and disclosure in the Board's Report; impact assessment by an independent agency is required for companies with average CSR obligation of ₹10 crore or more in the three preceding years, for projects of ₹1 crore or more completed at least a year earlier.
• Unspent money: amounts unspent against an ongoing project (duration not more than three years excluding the year of commencement) go to an Unspent CSR Account within 30 days of the year end and must be spent within three financial years, failing which they go to a Schedule VII fund; other unspent amounts go to a Schedule VII fund (such as PM CARES or the PM National Relief Fund) within six months of the year end. Default attracts monetary penalty on the company and its officers — the offence was decriminalised in 2020.
• Administrative overheads are capped at 5% of total CSR expenditure for the year; CSR-2 is the separate MCA report on CSR.
• Schedule VII heads include hunger/poverty/malnutrition and sanitation, education and skills, gender equality and women's empowerment, environmental sustainability and water, protection of heritage and culture, armed forces veterans, sports, contributions to specified government funds, technology incubators and research, rural development projects, slum area development and disaster management.
• Not CSR: activities in the normal course of business; one-off marketing, sponsorship or employee-welfare spends; contributions to political parties; spending outside India (except training Indian sports personnel); statutory fulfilment of other laws.
• CSR jobs: CSR Manager/Head in a company, Programme Manager in a corporate foundation (Tata Trusts, Reliance Foundation, HDFC Bank Parivartan, Azim Premji Foundation, Hindustan Zinc, ITC Mission Sunehra Kal), ESG and sustainability reporting (BRSR), and development consulting at firms such as Sattva, Intellecap, MicroSave/MSC, Dalberg, Deloitte/EY/Grant Thornton social-impact practices.

Rural banking, cooperatives and microfinance

• Rural credit structure: commercial banks; Regional Rural Banks set up under the Regional Rural Banks Act, 1976, jointly owned by the Centre (50%), the sponsor bank (35%) and the state (15%) and amalgamated under "One State–One RRB" so that the count fell to 28 with effect from 1 May 2025; the short-term cooperative three-tier structure StCB → DCCB → PACS; the long-term structure SCARDB → PCARDB; NBFC-MFIs and Small Finance Banks.
• NABARD, established under the NABARD Act, 1981, is the apex development bank: refinance to RRBs, cooperatives and SFBs; RIDF (funded largely by PSL shortfalls of banks); supervision/inspection of RRBs and cooperative banks; promotion of the SHG–Bank Linkage Programme (pilot from 1992, now the world's largest microfinance programme); Watershed Development Fund, Tribal Development Fund, Financial Inclusion Fund; FPO promotion.
• Priority Sector Lending (RBI Master Directions, as revised with effect from 1 April 2025): domestic scheduled commercial banks — 40% of ANBC or CEOBE, whichever is higher, within which agriculture 18% (with a sub-target of 10% for small and marginal farmers), micro enterprises 7.5% and weaker sections 12%. RRBs and SFBs carry a 75% PSL requirement. Shortfalls are parked in RIDF/other funds with NABARD; surpluses can be sold as PSLCs.
• Rural banking schemes a field officer handles: Kisan Credit Card (collateral-free limit raised to ₹2 lakh per borrower by RBI with effect from 1 January 2025), the Modified Interest Subvention Scheme (short-term crop loans at a subvented rate with an additional prompt-repayment incentive; the covered KCC loan limit was raised to ₹5 lakh in the 2025-26 Budget), PM-KISAN income support, PMJDY accounts and the business correspondent model, PMJJBY/PMSBY/APY micro-insurance and pension, AIF/AIDF and PMFME term lending.
• Microfinance regulation: the RBI's harmonised Regulatory Framework for Microfinance Loans, 2022 defines a microfinance loan as a collateral-free loan to a household with annual income up to ₹3 lakh, caps total monthly repayment obligations of the household at 50% of monthly household income, bans prepayment penalty, requires a Board-approved pricing policy with a disclosed effective interest rate and a Key Fact Statement, and requires an NBFC-MFI to hold at least 75% of total assets as qualifying microfinance assets. Sa-Dhan and MFIN are the RBI-recognised self-regulatory organisations.
• Cooperatives and producer organisations: the Ministry of Cooperation (2021); the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 as amended in 2023; the Anand pattern three-tier dairy structure (village society → district union → state federation, e.g. Amul/GCMMF with NDDB), IFFCO and KRIBHCO in fertiliser; PACS computerisation and the push for new multipurpose PACS; the national-level cooperatives for exports, organics and seeds. FPOs are formed as producer companies under Part IXA (Chapter XXIA) of the Companies Act, 2013 or as cooperatives, promoted under the Central scheme for formation of 10,000 FPOs through SFAC, NABARD and NCDC.
• Recruitment exams: IBPS RRB Officer Scale I/II/III and Office Assistant; NABARD Grade A and Grade B (Rural Development/Agriculture streams, plus Development Assistant); IBPS SO – Agriculture Field Officer; RBI Grade B; state cooperative bank and FCI/NAFED recruitments; UPSC and state PSCs for rural development and panchayati raj departments.

Key points

• Rural management – management of rural producer collectives, missions, banks and NGOs, combining business discipline with field immersion.
• IRMA – founded 1979 at Anand on Dr Verghese Kurien's initiative; flagship two-year PGDM (Rural Management).
• IRMASAT – IRMA's Social Awareness Test, taken alongside a CAT/XAT/CMAT/GMAT score and an interview.
• VFS / OFS / MTS – IRMA's village, organisational and management-traineeship fieldwork segments.
• NIRDPR Hyderabad – MoRD's national institute; one-year PGDRDM and training of rural development functionaries.
• DAY-NRLM – 2011 mission (from SGSY) run through autonomous SRLMs such as Kudumbashree, JEEViKA, SERP.
• SHG → VO → CLF – the three-tier community institution architecture of NRLM.
• RF, CIF, interest subvention – NRLM's seed corpus, livelihood investment fund and cheap-credit instrument.
• Lakhpati Didi – an SHG household with annual income of ₹1 lakh or more; the mission's headline metric.
• VB-G RAM G Act – replaced MGNREGA from 1 July 2026; 125 days of guaranteed rural wage employment per household per year.
• NGO legal forms – society (1860 Act), public trust (1882 Act/state law), or Section 8 company (Companies Act, 2013).
• FCRA, 2010 (amended 2020) – foreign funds only through the SBI New Delhi Main Branch account, 20% administrative cap, no sub-granting.
• CSR-1 – mandatory MCA registration before an NGO can receive CSR funds; CSR-2 is the company's CSR report.
• Section 135 CSR – net worth ₹500 cr / turnover ₹1,000 cr / net profit ₹5 cr triggers a 2% spend of three-year average net profit.
• Unspent CSR Account – holds unspent ongoing-project money for three years; other unspent money goes to a Schedule VII fund.
• PSL – 40% of ANBC for commercial banks (agri 18%, SMF 10%, micro 7.5%, weaker sections 12%); 75% for RRBs and SFBs.
• NABARD – 1981 Act; refinance, RIDF, supervision of RRBs/cooperative banks, SHG–bank linkage, FPO promotion.
• Microfinance (RBI 2022 framework) – household income up to ₹3 lakh, repayments capped at 50% of household income, collateral-free, NBFC-MFI qualifying assets ≥ 75%.

Formulas and examples

Example 1 — CSR applicability and quantum. A company has net worth ₹620 crore, turnover ₹700 crore and net profit ₹4 crore in FY 2025-26; s.198 net profits for the three preceding years were ₹80 cr, ₹100 cr and ₹120 cr.

1. Applicability: net worth ₹620 cr exceeds ₹500 crore, so s.135 applies even though turnover and net profit are below their thresholds (any one threshold suffices).
2. Average net profit = (80 + 100 + 120)/3 = ₹100 crore.
3. CSR obligation = 2% × 100 = ₹2 crore.
4. Administrative overhead ceiling = 5% × 2 crore = ₹10 lakh.
5. If only ₹1.5 crore is spent and the ₹50 lakh balance belongs to an ongoing project, that ₹50 lakh must be moved to the Unspent CSR Account within 30 days of the financial year end and spent within three financial years; if it is *not* an ongoing project, it goes to a Schedule VII fund within six months of the year end.

Example 2 — PSL targets and shortfall. A commercial bank has ANBC ₹2,00,000 crore (higher than its CEOBE).

• Overall PSL = 40% × 2,00,000 = ₹80,000 cr; Agriculture = 18% → ₹36,000 cr; small & marginal farmers = 10% → ₹20,000 cr; micro enterprises = 7.5% → ₹15,000 cr; weaker sections = 12% → ₹24,000 cr.
• Achieved agriculture lending ₹30,000 cr → shortfall = 36,000 − 30,000 = ₹6,000 cr, to be deposited in RIDF/other funds with NABARD at a low return, or bridged by buying agriculture PSLCs.

Example 3 — SHG corpus, leverage and interest subvention. An SHG of 15 members saves ₹100 per member per month for 24 months, has earned ₹4,000 interest on internal lending and received a revolving fund of ₹15,000; no loans outstanding.

1. Savings = 15 × 100 × 24 = ₹36,000.
2. Corpus = 36,000 + 4,000 + 15,000 = ₹55,000.
3. Bank loan at 1:4 leverage = 4 × 55,000 = ₹2,20,000.
4. At a 7% lending rate, annual interest = 0.07 × 2,20,000 = ₹15,400; with a 3% prompt-repayment subvention the effective 4% costs 0.04 × 2,20,000 = ₹8,800 — a saving of ₹6,600 a year, conditional on timely repayment.

Example 4 — microfinance eligibility and loan size. A household has annual income ₹2,40,000 and an existing loan EMI of ₹4,000.

1. Monthly household income = 2,40,000/12 = ₹20,000; income is below the ₹3 lakh ceiling, so the household is eligible.
2. Permitted total monthly repayment = 50% × 20,000 = ₹10,000; headroom = 10,000 − 4,000 = ₹6,000 per month.
3. New loan at 24% p.a. (r = 0.02 per month) for n = 24 months: (1.02)²⁴ = 1.6084, so (1+r)⁻ⁿ = 0.6217 and the EMI factor = 0.02/(1 − 0.6217) = 0.052871.
4. Maximum principal = 6,000/0.052871 ≈ ₹1,13,500 (rounded down). A ₹1.2 lakh loan on these terms would breach the 50% cap.

Example 5 — Lakhpati Didi verification. An SHG member keeps 3 buffaloes yielding 8 litres/day each, sells for 300 days a year at ₹42/litre, and spends ₹200 per animal per day on feed, fodder and veterinary care.

1. Daily milk = 3 × 8 = 24 litres; annual = 24 × 300 = 7,200 litres.
2. Revenue = 7,200 × 42 = ₹3,02,400.
3. Cost = 200 × 3 × 300 = ₹1,80,000.
4. Net household income from dairy = 3,02,400 − 1,80,000 = ₹1,22,400 → above ₹1,00,000, so the household qualifies as a Lakhpati Didi on this activity alone; any wage or farm income only strengthens the position.

Where it is used

• Dairy and agri cooperatives: Anand-pattern unions and federations (Amul/GCMMF, Mother Dairy, NDDB) hire rural managers for procurement, village-society management, input services and brand marketing.
• Rural and agri-input business: FMCG and agri-input companies (ITC, HUL, Mahindra, Tata Chemicals, Coromandel, Bayer, Dehaat, Ninjacart) need rural distribution, channel and sourcing managers who can read village markets.
• Government missions and panchayati raj: SRLM programme managers, cluster coordinators and M&E staff running SHG federations, Lakhpati Didi plans, VB-G RAM G works, PMAY-G and Mission Antyodaya planning at gram panchayat level.
• Banking and financial inclusion: RRB and cooperative bank field officers, NABARD District Development Managers, BC network managers, NBFC-MFI branch and credit managers working under the RBI 2022 microfinance framework and PSL targets.
• CSR, foundations and ESG: corporate CSR teams designing Schedule VII projects, managing CSR-1-registered partners, commissioning impact assessments and reporting through the Board's Report, CSR-2 and BRSR.
• Development consulting, research and multilaterals: evaluation and design assignments for World Bank, UNDP, IFAD, state governments and philanthropies — baseline surveys, outcome evaluation, SROI and cost-per-beneficiary analysis.

Interview questions

• Q: What makes rural management different from a general MBA? A: The client is usually a collective or a poor household rather than a firm maximising profit, margins are thin and volumes dispersed, and institutions (cooperatives, SHG federations, panchayats) are themselves part of the product — so institution-building and field immersion matter as much as analytics.
• Q: How is IRMA's selection process different from other B-schools? A: Besides a national test score and interview, IRMA requires IRMASAT, a written test on issues of social concern, because the programme is looking for awareness of and commitment to rural India.
• Q: Explain the NRLM institutional architecture. A: Women's SHGs of 10–20 members federate into a Village Organisation, and VOs federate into a Cluster Level Federation; the federations hold funds, on-lend, run community cadres and negotiate with banks and government.
• Q: Who is a Lakhpati Didi? A: An SHG woman whose household earns ₹1 lakh or more a year, typically from a mix of farm, livestock, non-farm enterprise and wage income; it is DAY-NRLM's headline livelihood outcome indicator.
• Q: A company has net worth ₹600 crore but made a loss last year. Does CSR apply? A: Yes — s.135 is triggered by net worth, turnover or net profit, so the ₹500 crore net worth brings it in; the spend is 2% of the average net profit of the three preceding years, which may be a positive amount even after one loss year.
• Q: What happens to unspent CSR money? A: Unspent amounts of an ongoing project go to an Unspent CSR Account within 30 days of year end and must be used within three financial years; other unspent amounts go to a Schedule VII fund within six months, and default attracts monetary penalty on the company and its officers.
• Q: First compliance check before giving a grant to an NGO? A: That it is registered on CSR-1 with the MCA (for CSR funds) and, for foreign money, holds valid FCRA registration with the designated SBI New Delhi Main Branch account — plus current charitable-exemption and donor-deduction registrations under the Income-tax Act, 2025.
• Q: What are the PSL targets for a commercial bank and for an RRB? A: 40% of ANBC or CEOBE for a commercial bank, with agriculture 18% (small and marginal farmers 10%), micro enterprises 7.5% and weaker sections 12%; RRBs and small finance banks carry 75%.
• Q: What does NABARD do that a commercial bank does not? A: It refinances rural lenders, administers RIDF and other development funds, supervises RRBs and cooperative banks, and promotes institutions — SHG–bank linkage, FPOs, watershed and tribal development — rather than lending retail.
• Q: State the two hard numerical limits in the RBI's microfinance framework. A: Household annual income up to ₹3 lakh for a loan to qualify as a microfinance loan, and total monthly repayment obligations of the household capped at 50% of monthly household income.
• Q: Why would an SHG loan be priced at 7% rather than a bank's normal rate? A: Interest subvention under DAY-NRLM reduces the rate for eligible SHGs, with a further prompt-repayment incentive — the credit risk is managed by peer liability and federation oversight, not by collateral.
• Q: A CSR project shows high output but no income change. How would you judge it? A: Outputs are not outcomes — compare against a baseline and a comparison group, measure income/asset change per household, compute cost per beneficiary, and if the company's obligation and project size cross the thresholds, commission the statutory independent impact assessment.

Common mistakes

• Treating any one of the s.135 thresholds as needing to be met together — net worth, turnover or net profit is enough, and the test is on the immediately preceding financial year.
• Computing CSR on one year's profit, or on accounting profit, instead of the three-year average of s.198 net profit; or forgetting the 5% administrative overhead cap.
• Quoting MGNREGA as the current rural employment guarantee — the VB-G RAM G Act replaced it from 1 July 2026 with 125 days; MGNREGA may be named only as the former law.
• Citing old Income-tax section numbers (12A/80G) as current; the Income-tax Act, 2025 has renumbered everything from 1 April 2026.
• Confusing an RRB with a cooperative bank: RRBs are statutory bodies corporate established under the 1976 Act with Centre/sponsor-bank/state shareholding (50:35:15) and 75% PSL, while the short-term cooperative structure is StCB–DCCB–PACS.
• Mixing up the microfinance limits — the ₹3 lakh is household annual income, not loan size, and the 50% cap is on all monthly repayment obligations of the household, not just the new loan.
• Describing SHG bank loans as a grant: the revolving fund is seed money, the bank loan is credit at a subvented rate and must be repaid, and the leverage depends on grading of the group's corpus and discipline.
• Presenting outputs (trainings held, SHGs formed) as impact in an interview without a baseline, denominator or cost per beneficiary.

Related topics

Self-help groups and microfinance · Cooperatives and the Anand pattern in dairy · Rural credit and NABARD · Panchayati Raj and rural governance · Farmer Producer Organisations and agribusiness marketing · Monitoring, evaluation and impact assessment of rural programmes