Help 2000 tribal families fight hunger, Rajasthan

Dear Global Givers,

Here’s an update from our campaign where through your support, tribal families in Rajasthan from extremely resource-poor communities are fighting hunger. In order for this campaign to be successful, we are trying hard to raise funds through both, online and offline donations. iPartner India is determined to support these tribal families to fight hunger, by reaching out to friends and supporters so that we can conduct training and workshops, and educate them on sustainable smart farming. This can only be possible when we come together.

As per UN-India, there are nearly 195 million undernourished people in India, which is a quarter of the world's hunger burden. Also, roughly 43% of children in India are chronically undernourished. India ranked 107th out of 121 assessed countries on the 2022 Global Hunger Index (GHI). With an overall score of 29.1, the level of hunger in India has been categorised as "serious."

Update from the campaign:

• To date, 540 families have received support with the Kitchen garden setup. Seeds for carrot, radish, fenugreek, and beetroot were provided for the Rabi (winter) Season.
• 50% of the kitchen gardens of the Kharif season (monsoon) got destroyed due to rains. The average savings per family on vegetable expenses was INR 550/- before the rains.
• 20 families have also set up their nurseries and one training has been organized for them on sustainable farming techniques.
• Hydroponic farming has been introduced which will help in growing green fodder throughout the year with minimum investment in water and manure. Hydroponic System is a system of growing crops without soil, often called soilless farming.
• 3 smart farmers have been identified and helped in setting up the smart farm. The family received guidance and support in horticulture to plant 100 Papaya plants, lay 5 vermicompost beds to ensure chemical-free farming and 2 Azolla beds which is a cost-effective climate-resilient technique to ensure algae formation and help the farmer to maintain nutrition for livestock rearing.
• With the pest management training, the beneficiaries have reduced their input cost by 20 to 25% further increasing their profits.   

 Smart Kitchen Garden – Inclusive Solution

Through another grant we were able to pilot the concept of the Smart Kitchen Garden, therefore going forward we would like to explore it further.

Under the smart kitchen garden concept, our objective is to equip the women of every household with knowledge of IPM (Integrated Pest Management), INM (Integrated Nutrient Management), and natural farming by using kitchen waste to secure annual nutrient requirements. In the demonstration unit, mechanized drip irrigation powered by a solar system has been set up in the backyard of the household. Controlled irrigation management practices enable households to overcome the water scarcity in the kitchen garden and production can be ensured in heavy summer too.

Effective irrigation management is the major inspiration and value-addition component in a sustainable kitchen garden for better nutrition management for deprived and marginal households. The smart kitchen garden concept will be further improved for more effective and desired outcomes.

Story of Change

Nutritional Security of the Family through Smart Kitchen Garden Paravti lives in Harsuliya village. She belongs to the Nat community, predominantly involved in inter-generational sex work. She has six daughters and two sons. Her husband is casual labour and works in the fields of other farmers. 

Parvati is a hard-working woman. She is one of the beneficiaries of the kitchen garden initiative. Since she does not have a backyard space, the team has helped her to grow vegetables on her neighbour’s idle land. The team has helped her through various workshops on soil and water management. Despite water scarcity, Parvati has reaped the benefits of the kitchen garden programme by growing her vegetables. 

Irrigating the kitchen garden has been a major challenge for Parvati. The only solution was manual water transportation to irrigate the kitchen garden. Earlier, she required 500 liters of water every alternate day to irrigate the kitchen garden area and was solely dependent on the monsoon and winter season for growing vegetables. Due to the paucity of water, she had to forego the summer season of cultivation, which has an extra financial burden on her family.  The smart kitchen garden setup enabled her to save her time and manage irrigation in 200 litres of water for 3 days and the ability to cultivate around the year with value addition in her practice. 

Thank you Global Givers for your support. We need your continued support and solidarity as we still have a long way to achieve our campaign target of 2,000 tribal families. Post-pandemic, there has been a huge crisis in India, especially for the people working in the informal sector. With high unemployment and inflation with prices of fuel, and essential commodities rising continuously, resource-poor families especially the daily wage workers are being impacted deeply. Going forward, iPartner India would like to put more emphasis on smart kitchen gardens and hydroponics which can help these families to take up sustainable farming, increase their nutrient intake as well as help them earn by selling their surplus
produce. 

We look forward to your support in our endeavour to fight food insecurity in India.

With deep gratitude,
Team iPartner India

Dear Global Givers,

We are happy to report that through your generous support to this campaign; we have been able to help 15 resource-poor tribal families in Rajasthan to fight hunger.

Since our core project target is to reach out to 2,000 tribal families, we had to raise additional funds to meet our project goal. With additional funds raised, we have been able to identify 155 more households. Out of these 149 households were provided seeds of cluster beans, ladyfinger, bitter gourd, ridge gourd, Indian round gourd, tomato, and spinach. In addition, we have also provided seasonal monsoon seeds to 540 families through the support of other funding sources.

These 710 (cumulative above-mentioned) households were also provided with technical support and information on the maintenance of the kitchen garden on a routine basis by the project team. The remaining six households out of 155 were selected for another model of Smart Kitchen Garden that would also act as a demonstration unit to motivate other farmers in the nearby vicinity to opt for smart initiatives. The smart kitchen garden stores wastewater through a solar pump for irrigation. It also provides enhanced protection from pests and other insects.

Here is an update on activities that we have been able to carry out in the past months in the intervention area.

• Kitchen garden seeds distribution to 540 families has been completed.
• The families were provided seeds of brinjal, bitter gourd, apple gourd, and spinach for the Kharif season (autumn).
• Training of community mobilizers is completed. Monthly meetings for pest management are held where the mobilisers disseminate the information to the identified families.
• The sowing of seeds has been completed for all the identified households.

The pandemic has disrupted the agricultural sector across India. Farms have not been able to gain much profit due to the rise in food prices which has put pressure on food security.

We still have a long way to go till all 2,000 families that we have pledged to help receive the support they need to sustain their families. iPartner India is committed to fighting for these tribal families and for this, we need your continued support.

Thank you Global Givers for believing in our work. Our aim is not only to ensure food security in terms of availability of food but also for these resource-poor households to have access to sufficient nutritious food.

With deep gratitude,
Team iPartner India