This project is in progress in Kancheepuram, Thiruvannamalai and Nagapattinam districts covering 9168 farmers from 79 panchayats of seven taluks with the supported by DFID, UK, under the Global Poverty Action Fund (GPAF) – Impact Window and co-funded by HIVOS, Netherlands. It is being done in partnership with Vrutti Livelihood Resource Centre (VLRC), Bengaluru.

OBJECTIVES

• To contribute to reduce poverty and hunger and help achieve Millennium Development Goal - 1 in India.

• To increase the income levels of the small holder agriculture households by establishing a farmer led social enterprise model.

• For Promoted use of ecological and better management practices in agriculture leading to improved productivity and reduced cost of cultivation.

• To develop agriculture value chains for selected crops leading to improved returns.

• To establish and strengthen CBO's of farmers (producer groups and federation)

• For knowledge dissemination and policy engagement for better policy and environment in Tamil Nadu.

WORK DONE UNDER THE PROJECT

• Village Agri Business Development Service Providers (VABDSPs) have been placed in all the beneficiary panchayats to provide necessary services to the farmers.

• A total of 552 Sustainable Agriculture Self Help Groups (SASHGs), 74 Panchayat Agriculture Development Committees (PADCs) and five Cluster Agriculture Development Committees (CADCs) have been formed.

Organic farming technology - non-chemical pest management using pheromone traps

• Beneficiaries have been given support for seven tested successful packages like organic home gardens, seed production, complete organic farming, soil fertility improvement products, biopesticides, backyard poultry and value addition. These packages implemented by beneficiaries were reviewed and documented periodically.

Organic seed production - field inspection

• A total of 6,232 farmers have adopted proven technology advices such as improved quality of seeds, application of biopesticides and soil fertility enhancement techniques, adoption of SRI techniques and use of improved farm machinery.

• Community level biopesticide units (7), vermicompost units (14), value addition units (9) and mushroom production unit (1) have been set up in all the three districts.

Community vermicompost production unit - Income generation for women beneficiaries

• Fourteen Agriculture Machineries Facilitation Centres (AMFCs) have been established in Nagapattinam and Thiruvannamalai districts with a range of machineries to address the issues of agriculture labour scarcity and heavy cultivation costs.

• Agriculture value chains for paddy, groundnut and pulses for the improved returns through value addition and market initiatives have been developed.

• Two Agriculture Producer Companies - Marutham and Valanadu Sustainable Agriculture Producer Company Limited have been established in Thiruvannamalai and Nagapattinam districts with a total subscription of 4124 members.

• Training on a variety of package of practices for the beneficiaries, capacity building trainings for the VABDSPs, office bearers of SHGs and producer companies and capacity building trainings for project staff were conducted intensively.

Exposure visit cum training on organic farming technologies

• Two studies on ‘Understanding SRI adoption' and ‘Home gardens for seed conservation and supplementary nutrition' have been conducted.

• Value chain studies have been completed for paddy, groundnut and pulses and the key findings have been shared with the farmers' groups.

Practical training session on value addition - rice vadam preparation

• Convergence of various government schemes have been availed for inputs, implements, SRI method of cultivation and for the activities of farmers' clubs.

Combined effort of conservation of traditional varieties and seed production