About Us

The Jharkhand state is characterized by low and fragmented undulating land holding. Most rural households are engaged in subsistence farming under adverse and risky environmental conditions. The families are often engaged in low paying non-agricultural activities. The sub marginal farmers, which constitute 49.8% of the population, are having 0.4 ha land. Though the state is seasonal vegetable surplus, still the rural community is deficient of food and nutrition ranging from 24% to 61% through food grains, vegetables and fruits. Producers in these regions already suffer from a serious technological and productivity gap compared to better endowed areas. The undulated topography, traditional technologies, use of indigenous seeds are other concerns. These and various other factors lead to poor productivity, less price realization from farm produces specially for the poor tribal’s and geographically scattered farmers. Increasing population is posing threat to the limited natural resources and pressure on existing farm lands, which is triggering migration to cities and other states. Round the year food insecurity and malnutrition is apparent in rural areas. Agriculture based livelihood cannot go beyond a point if development of two fundamental resources like land and water is unaddressed. There is enough experience today to know that on an average net additional income Rs.35000-40000/- per family can be enhanced in 1- 1.5 acre of land is required to stabilize farm based livelihoods over a span of three to five years with institutional support mechanism for sustenance. The project proposes to invest Rs 11,104/-per farmer in span of 03 years and additional income of farmer will be increased Rs 40,000 – Rs 60,000 annually by third year of the project. The project is being implemented with around 60,000 small and marginal women farmers belonging to ST, SC, Other Backward Caste (OBC) and Below Poverty Line families and spread over in 577 villages of 5 districts. In all the proposed villages there exists women’s Self Help Groups (SHG), involved in savings and credit activities. And some of the groups are linked to different schemes of the government and banks. Some of these SHGs and livelihood groups are already engaged in agriculture, collection and processing of non-timber forest produce and rearing of small ruminants. All these activities would be strengthened and intensified by providing inputs in regard to organizational development and through different interventions. These SHG would be the pivotal point for planning and implementation of the initiatives planned in the project. NRLM compliant SHGs would be federated under producer groups in each Cluster, where the SHG members would become equity holder. NRLM architecture would be placed for smooth functioning local institution of women farmers to address the issues of agribusiness, agriculture extension and other developmental issues including collaboration with panchayats, line departments and other such institutions. Community cadre will be developed in the form of Community Resource Persons which will be groomed on institutional and technical aspects with a view that they will be serving as service providers in the local area eventually on revenue earning basis through the institutional channel of SHGs and producer organizations. Training, exposure and constant handholding to the VO’s, Gram Panchayats and CRPs will be the key strategy of the project. The VO’s and the CRPs are expected to be leading the project implementation with facilitation support by the project staff. Agriculture based technology introduction, validation and adoption will be the key to bring in positive change in the current productivity level. ‚Farmer field schools, video enabled extension methods, voice based extension method etc. shall be the key instruments to introduce and propagate technologies. The sustainability of the project will be ensured by developing and strengthening local CRP’s around all the project social and entrepreneurial activities who will work on revenue model upon exit of the project.

Project Objectives:

i) To promote agriculture productivity enhancement programme through SRI, SWI, natural farming, half acre model etc.

ii) To promote the maximum use of land by covering the agriculture land with crops and vegetables throughout the year for retaining essential nutrient in the soil.

iii) To promote non-pesticide based natural farming in the agriculture land

iv) Up-gradation of knowledge and skills of women farmers in sustainable agriculture and resource management practices.

v) Development of livelihood prototypes appropriate to local production system and socio-economic conditions.

vi) To create a pool of local resources for the management and expansion of the agriculture based livelihoods programmes

vii) To promote scientific lac cultivation and tamarind processing for increased income

viii) To promote goatery and poultry as a supplementary income generation activity

ix) Improved working conditions for women farmers with the use of women friendly tools and technologies involving low level of drudgery.

Project Strategy:

i) Identification of locally available community knowledge and resources for revitalization and mass level propagation. Capacity building of women farmers and CRPs on sustainable farm practices and resource management through field based training, demonstration and exposure visits.

ii) Detail livelihood planning at household and group level including resource augmentation & utilization plan, investment plan, working capital requirement etc. The plan would incorporate possibilities of sustainable agriculture practices, cash crops, food security as well as nutrition requirement of the beneficiary families, soil health, environment, adoption of new livelihood activities etc.

iii) Development of community level Farmers Field School (FFS) as demonstration cum learning platform for practical and experimental learning.

iv) Extensive convergence and linkages with PRIs and government programmes like MGNREGA, NRLM, NSAP, RKVY, NFSM, ATMA and also with department of fisheries and animal resource development for accessing inputs and technologies.

v) Strengthening market linkage for marketing of inputs and agricultural produce.

vi) Promoting livestock production, processing of NTFP and value addition & agro-processing of agro-products by landless families.

Intervention Area:

District	Block
Ranchi	Namkum
Ranchi	Bundu
Latehar	LateharSadar
Simdega	Kolebira
Giridih	Bengabad
Pakur	Maheshpur

Key outputs:

Following outputs are expected out of project intervention and convergence activities by the end of 3rd year:

1. Enhancement in household income of 80% of women farmers by Rs. 60,000 per farmers per annum by 3rd year onward.

2. Around 750 acres of additional land (fallow or through 2nd cropping) brought under cultivation.

3. Cropping intensity/ gross cropped area increased by 30% above and over baseline.

4. Productivity of major crop increased by 30%.

5. Production and use of quality compost increases by 50%.

6. Around 80% women farmers start using bio-fertilizers and botanical extracts for pest and disease management.

7. Adoption of improved & sustainable farming practices by more than 60% of women farmers.

8. At least 60% of women farmers adopt drudgery reduction tools and techniques.

9. Around 20% higher price realization for agriculture produce cultivated through NPM practice.

10. Around 20% women farmers adopt integrated farming system for better utilization of resources.