Food Security India Project #1891

Support Small Farmers in India

by Seva Mandir

Project Report | Nov 27, 2022
Nobel Laureate & J-Pal Group visited Seva Mandir

By Atul Lekhra | Programme Incharge

Dear Friend,

Recently, Seva Mandir was elated to welcome 2019 Nobel Laureate Prof. Abhijeet Banerjee, Economist, Director J-Pal (The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab) and Mohammad Abdul Latif Jameel, Chairman and CEO, Abdul Latif Jameel Group and J-Pal team. This visit was a special visit for both parties due to the exciting exchange of thoughts and ideas shared on the mutual interest in the development of rural communities in Rajasthan.

Prof. Banerjee and Seva Mandir have had a longstanding and strong relationship since 1996. The Nobel laureate has worked extensively on studying various development problems and has helped in contributing to their solutions.

The few days of their Udaipur visit were jam-packed with visits and productive discussions. The J-PAL team, along with Seva Mandir’s team, traveled to remote villages Jalpaka and Jhabla; where they were formally introduced to Seva Mandir’s initiatives including natural resources, early childcare and nutrition, women empowerment and education.

A notable highlight of the visit was Prof. Banerjee’s enthusiastic discussion at a women’s Self Help Group (SHG) regarding the growing challenges of poverty and need for climate action in vulnerable regions and communities such as theirs.

During the community discussion, Prof. Banerjee vocalized, “Climate change and water scarcity are global challenges,and it will worsen in future. In India, the rural community has vast knowledge of water related challenges and its solutions. I look forward to understanding community perspectives and suggestions on tackling the future challenges and its solutions. This democratic approach will enable us to find collaborative solutions to the future challenges.”

Thank you so much for all your faith and continuous support to our programme.

Best Wishes,

Atul Lekhra & the Seva Mandir team

Links:

Permalink

Nov 11, 2022
Supporting and Empowering Small Farmers

By Atul Lekhra | Programme Incharge

"They say you can't make a living from farming, but I say doing anything else isn't really living." This is what Mohan believes. Born and brought up in extreme poverty, Mohan is a proud farmer trainee and father of 3, who has never received any formal education. Since childhood, all he knew was that he was a poor farmer - but he had an aim - he would not die poor; He would fight his own war. He would win his war.

He continued working hard and waited for the right opportunity. His dream took flight when Seva Mandir’s agricultural trainings started in his village. These trainings taught good agricultural practices to marginal farmers. Mohan started the training with full dedication and determination. He implemented these farming techniques with coriander cultivation and 4kgs of quality seeds that were provided by Seva Mandir to the village.

2 months after sowing the seeds, Mohan made around 15 trips to the market to sell the produce and made Rs 63,000 ($781). The monetary costs he incurred in the process were the cost of transportation and labor for cutting the coriander leaves.

This coriander cultivation encouraged Mohan, and he added cauliflower into his next crop cultivation. The cauliflower was also profitable and he made Rs 28,000 ($347) from a single harvest.

Today Mohan is successful and selling his crops at a very good profit margin. He even became the role model for other members of his community.

A big thank you goes to you, our supporters. You are an integral part of this journey in providing sustainable livelihoods to underprivileged people and we are proud to be associated with you. Thank you for all your faith and continuous support to our programme. With only as little as $10 from you, 1 farmer family, like Mohan’s, will be able to set up a vegetable garden. Please consider donating once or monthly through: https://www.globalgiving.org/projects/support-india-food-security/

Best wishes,

Regards

Atul Lekhra & the Seva Mandir Team

Links:

Permalink

Jul 19, 2022
Supporting and Nurturing Farmers

By Atul Lekhra | Programme Incharge

Seva Mandir works in a region which is highly vulnerable to climate change. A World Bank Group report in 2018, on South Asia’s Hotspots, classified the region as a moderate hotspot zone. Evidence from various climate science studies points to the negative effects which a rise in average temperature has on people’s living standards, and shows that inland areas like southern Rajasthan are particularly severely affected.

Our work area is located in the Aravalli hills. This hilly region receives an average annual rainfall of 630 mm which is not evenly distributed throughout the year, and it experiences drought every three to five years. This is a high water-stress zone with the supply of water from rainfall not meeting demands for agriculture, household consumption and other uses.

80% of people in the region we work in live in rural areas and depend mostly on subsistence agriculture and livestock rearing. 84% of the farmers are small and marginal farmers with two hectares of land or less, with only about half fit for cultivation. Most families cannot produce enough food grains from their farms to last them for the whole year. A report by the UN World Food Programme states that Udaipur district is the least food-secure area in Rajasthan. As a result, 56% of households have at least one member, usually the male household head, migrating for casual labouring work away from their village to meet their household food consumption and income needs.

The poor status of food and water security reinforces the vicious cycle of poverty in the region. Seva Mandir has been working for decades to tackle these challenges.

Mohan, 55 years old, is a farmer in Khamnor. He has a small land holding and is dependent on agriculture for sustaining his family of three. Before being associated with Seva Mandir project, he was practicing traditional farming with average quality seeds, resulting into average harvest and limited income.

Then, Mohan got linked with our project for vegetable cultivation. He undergone advanced technical trainings on agriculture along with high-quality seeds. He has planted radish, tomatoes, and chilly seeds in his nursery. The saplings grew are of very good quality and the transplantation was also successful.

The harvest has already started. Mohan and his family are consuming the harvest and has already earned INR 600 ($8) by selling the surplus in local market. His second harvest of tomatoes and onions is due soon and he is expected to earn around INR 10,000 ($135) from this crop.

Mohan happily shares that it is during the trainings, given by Seva Mandir, he learned about right timing and techniques of preparing nursery beds, which led to good quality harvest. He is excited and looking forward to his upcoming trainings.

Thank you so much for all your faith and continuous support to our programme. We are happy to share that we are participating in GlobalGiving’s July Bonus Day Campaign. Donations of $100 USD and up will be matched on Wednesday, July 20, 2022, starting at 9 a.m. ET. The higher the amount, the higher will be the match. So, this is the chance to take one small action and it will have more impact on the lives of many farmers. We hope that you will once again support our programme.

Best Wishes,

Atul Lekhra & the Seva Mandir team

Links:

Permalink

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ... 27 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.