Food Security India Project #46195

Income through agriculture for Tamil Nadu Families

by VOICE Trust

Project Report | Jun 9, 2025
"From Soil to Stability": A Story of Change

By Janet Preethi G | Project Leader

The family is drying crop for getting Gingelly oil

In the quiet village of Siruganur, nestled between dry fields and dusty roads, lived a mother named Mallika. Every morning, she would leave her small thatched home before sunrise, with a sickle in hand and hope in her heart. For years, Mallika and her husband worked as daily wage farm laborers, earning barely 150 a day—when there was work.

They couldn’t afford treatment or transport, let alone special aids. It seemed like life had already set limits for them. But everything changed when an agricultural training team from a nearby NGO entered their village.

The Beginning of a New Season

The team wasn't just offering training—they brought hope. They spoke of integrated farming, organic inputs, and small value-added enterprises. Mallika, along with 30 other women from her village, joined the training. They learned how to grow brinjal, millets, and greens without costly chemicals, how to rear goats alongside crops, and how to turn waste into compost.

She received a starter kit—seeds, natural pesticides, and a low-cost drip irrigation pipe. The real shift came when the women formed a Self-Help Group (SHG) and started processing surplus greens into packaged bundles for the local market. A nearby college even agreed to buy directly from them.

These are not isolated stories—they are part of a growing movement. Across Tamil Nadu, farming families are embracing:

Sustainable agriculture: Switching to organic and natural methods.
Diversification: Combining crops, livestock, and value-added products.
Women-led enterprises: From banana chips to herbal oils.
Farmer groups and cooperatives: For better bargaining and bulk marketing.

Today, more than 700 families across 5 districts have improved their income by 30% to 50%, with consistent yields, direct market linkages, and local branding.

Agriculture is not just income for a family—it is nutrition, education, healthcare, and security. When farming thrives, the entire family thrives. When it suffers, every part of their life is affected.

For families like Ramu’s, supporting agriculture means supporting everything they live for—their dignity, their dreams, and their children’s future.

What’s Next?

The goal is to scale this model to 1,000 families in the next 2 years. Plans are underway to:

Set up mobile processing units for groundnut oil and millet snacks.
Train rural youth as agri-entrepreneurs.
Partner with local panchayats and government schemes for broader reach.

This isn’t just a project—it’s a movement of dignity and independence, rooted in the soil of Tamil Nadu. When you invest in rural families and their land, you don’t just grow crops—you grow futures.

Interested in virtual volunteering email to connect@voice-trust.org.

Another family are cleaning onions for sale.

Selling it in the local market.

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Feb 4, 2025
Value added products bring value to the families in India

By Janet Preethi G | Project Leader

Sep 25, 2024
Why agriculture is the backbone of rural India?

By Janet Preethi G | Project Leader

70 year old women dose'nt lose hope in agriculture

Agriculture is the mainstay of Indian economy because about 67% of our population depends directly or indirectly on agriculture. ii It provides raw materials to the industries. iii India earns foreign exchange by exporting agricultural products. iv It contributes about 29% to the gross domestic product.

While agriculture’s share in India’s economy has progressively declined to less than 15% due to the high growth rates of the industrial and services sectors, the sector’s importance in India’s economic and social fabric goes well beyond this indicator. First, nearly three-quarters of India’s families depend on rural incomes. Second, the majority of India’s poor (some 770 million people or about 70 percent) are found in rural areas. And third, India’s food security depends on producing cereal crops, as well as increasing its production of fruits, vegetables and milk to meet the demands of a growing population with rising incomes. To do so, a productive, competitive, diversified and sustainable agricultural sector will need to emerge at an accelerated pace.

India is a global agricultural powerhouse. It is the world’s largest producer of milk, pulses, and spices, and has the world’s largest cattle herd (buffaloes), as well as the largest area under wheat, rice and cotton. It is the second largest producer of rice, wheat, cotton, sugarcane, farmed fish, sheep & goat meat, fruit, vegetables and tea. The country has some 195 m ha under cultivation of which some 63 percent are rainfed (roughly 125m ha) while 37 percent are irrigated (70m ha). In addition, forests cover some 65m ha of India’s land.

The problem is nowadays men and women are not that much interested in agriculture. Youth from rural and urban are given exposure and training in practicing agricuture. We are successfully achieveing good amount of people in agriculture and we have started a model farm to give training for Youth and latest techniques in agriculture to all rural farmers who lack in getting information about the latest techniques.

Its our own duty to make this earth a greener one through organic farming.

To be a part of this journey email us to connect@voice-trust.org

Thank you

Arockiasamy with his grandson seperating lemons

To be sent for sale..!!

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